Genocide
by Anony01
Summary: In a world where humans persecute Pokemon, our main character, Ronin, finds himself as an exile from human society. With his growing hatred for human society, he encounters a group of gardevoirs and gallades to kill off the humans that once hunted them down. Ronin, as a leader, will partner up with Emily to get rid of the genocide against the Pokemon. Mature Lemons later
1. Exiled

**Hey guys. This is my second story that I've previously written from a long time ago. Of course, this will mean that my writing style is also a little more... perhaps, "childish?" **

**Tell me what you guys think about it though. I don't know whether I should continue to upload this thread of Genocide. **

**Check out Time Heals All Pain if you guys haven't already :)**

Everything started from being excluded from human society. I was faced with false crime and was blamed for it. Even the jurors knew I was innocent. However, they were kind enough to let me off without being blinded with hot coal. I was basically banished from a place called home. They kicked me out of the town. Ever since, I have felt a kind of hatred for the humankind, even though I was one myself.

So now, I live in the wilderness like a caveman. I was residing in a cave. I relied primarily on fish as a source of protein and meat. Other times if I get lucky, I get to eat a boar or baby pig for a meal. I live nearby a fresh stream of water, so getting freshwater wasn't a big problem. I was rather starting to meet more hostile people though. Once I encountered a group of explorers in the area. When I saw them, instinct told me that they were going to kill me for fun. I managed to hide from them before they gave up on their search and left. It would have been so much better if I could have stolen some of their equipment. By that time, the number of people "strolling" past my territory was rising quickly. I figured that the humans wanted to move into the area. So I decided to move. I grabbed my packsack and put days worth of food in there. I grabbed my glass container for water and put it in my backpack as well. That's when I decided to leave the took me a couple of months to find a perfect place to settle. I was in a mountain-like area. The mountain resembled a cup-like shape. I was near that structure. I decided to camp at a cave. I managed to build a hut-like structure to protect me from snow and sleet.

I have never encountered humans again for three years. Though I have encountered other things.

Once, I was nuzzling against wolf skin inside my hut while it was a blizzard outside. I had prepared some hot coal to warm up the insides of the structure. That's when a small like creature managed to catch my attention. It resembled a human, but it was too small to actually be a human.

What is that? I thought. The figure had hair that was laced with ice from the blizzard. It stumbled around before falling. I pushed away from the skin and watched the creature stumble around in the cold.

It was a kirlia.

I was just as surprised as you were. I heard many stories about the pokemon, but never knew they were true. I managed to get over my shock and get the kirlia to safety before it froze to death.

I laid the freezing kirlia under the covers. I brought the bowl of coal near the sleeping figure. That was rather close... another 3 minutes could have killed it.

I watched the sleeping figure until it eventually woke up. It was surprised to see me. It jumped up and dashed outside. It has stopped snowing by then.

I never saw the kirlia again.

_I hope it's safe I guess_... I thought while stretching.

A couple of years past and nothing really happened since that incident.

And right as I was reflecting on my past few years on the side of the river, that's when stuff happened. Ironically un-funny. Karma is doo-doo sometimes.

It all happened when I left the tent to check on my fish traps. Spring has arrived and winter has left. I figured it was a good time to catch games.

I peered into the water sunken basket. It had caught a couple of fish, so I brought one to the stake where I smoked it. I decided to also check on my animal traps as well. None of them really worked. The traps were extremely weak. Even a baby animal could sometimes escape. I sometimes laced the spikes with poison to slowly kill it. Other times I couldn't get my hands on anything.

I stumbled around the forest trying to gather supplies from trees and the ground. That's when I spotted another group of people.

_Are you serious? _I thought as I crept towards them.

I guess my luck is running out.

I stopped once I was ten feet away from them. My eyes grew wider. They weren't people, it was a group of gallades and gardevoirs. Four gallades and three gardevoirs.

"Didn't madam say he was here somewhere?" A gallades said, sounding somewhat annoyed.

"Yes," a gardevoir said, looking around. It looked around, but something was definitely looked over at my spot twice. Something was most definitely wrong.

"How long are we going to look for this person?" Said another gardevoir.

"Maybe we should just give up." The last gardevoir said. I started to get nervous. Who did they mean by 'he'?

"Anyways, we saw many of the traps. This means somebody does live around here." Another gallade said. "They were very weak by the way."

"You shouldn't have destroyed them though." Another gardevoir said.

_Are you serious? It took me time to make those traps. Looks like I'm going to have to remake them..._

I watched as the original gardevoir looked at the other gallades with a displeased face. By that time, I have decided to sneak away. As I took a step backward, I felt my body paralyze. Crap! I felt my body crumble to the floor. I tried to move my arms to no avail. The group approached my hiding spot.

"Looks like the human came to us himself." A gallade said, cracking his arms in an intimating way. I started to panic.

"Stop that." The first gardevoir said, glaring at the gallade. It approached me and grabbed my dirt-stained shirt.

(Why were you spying on us?) it asked me.

_Woah. Did it speak to me without... speaking?_ I thought.

(Yes, I speak telepathically. Now answer my question before I lose my patience,) It warned.

_Look, I was just walking around gathering supplies. Then I just saw you guys_. I thought, pointing at the rest of the group.

(Why didn't you leave then?) it asked.

_Uhh... I dunno, I was curious_. I thought.

(Can we just kill him?) One of the gallades asked.

_Woah woah woah, wait what?_ I thought.

"No, we can't. The matriarch wants him anyways." The gardevoir said, turning away. "If you come with us peacefully, we won't have to proceed in a violent way. Understood?"

I nodded. I didn't have much of a choice anyway.

"Move along then." It said, prodding me. I walked by them all the way. They were silent, though I could tell that they were speaking telepathically. I looked ahead as they brought me to who knows where.

(Why are you here anyway?) A gallade asked.

"Me?" I asked.

"Yes, you filthy human dipsh-"

"Watch your mouth." The first gardevoir said, glaring at the gallade.

"Alright misses 'in-charge'." It said back. I sensed some sarcasm from the comment.

The gardevoir punched the gallade as soon as my eyes dilated. The gallade laid on the floor with its head bleeding freely. The gardevoir's hands were on fire. I yelped and jumped back.

(Finally found a reason to kill him,) the gardevoir said, extinguishing its flaming hand. (Our matriarch won't mind.) I swallowed hard.

"As you can probably tell, if you do anything funny, that will be you," the gardevoir said, sensing my uneasiness. I didn't say anything.

I guess I should keep silent then... I mean, I don't want my ass getting whooped. I don't think I like this gardevoir. I thought. I glanced at the gardevoir to see her examining me. I quickly flicked my eyes back towards the road we were walking.

_Was it looking at me?_

"I heard a lot from the matriarch about you." The gardevoir said simply. I flinched. "You saved a kirlia a while ago right?"

I nodded.

(Why didn't you leave it?) it asked curiously.

"Um... I don't know... I just felt like I should have helped it." I mumbled.

(We are taking you to our matriarch. There she will decide what would happen to you.) it said.

"You guys have genders?" I asked. I bite my tongue though. I couldn't risk my life by asking a stupid question.

(That's okay, I'm supposed to guard you anyways, not kill you. We do have genders, as you can probably tell.) it said.

_Presuming 'she'_ I thought.

"When are we there?" I asked, quite nervous.

(We are not far,) she said. I didn't say anything after that. We walked the whole way without speaking. I thought about running away a couple of times though. Such as when a few of the gallades decided to drink from a stream we passed. The gardevoirs were keeping a close watch on my every movement. I learned that they could read whatever I could think, so I have to really keep my attitude in check. Even if I think of running, they would probably catch me even before I can act. All I can hope to come out alive by the end of this whole mess.

We arrived in a town-like place. I was pretty surprised by their civilizations. They were surprised by the presence of a human as well.

Many of them didn't seem very friendly. Well, at least their spite was aimed towards me.

We all just ignored them and kept walking. A couple of ralts and kirlias started to bother us. They started to throw rocks at the gallades and me.

I noticed that they didn't bother the gardevoirs however. The gallades and I had to occasionally duck my heads at the incoming barrage of rocks and flying projectiles.

"Here." The gardevoir directed me. I was prodded towards a large building. I was greeted by a pair of hostile gardevoirs. When they saw the leading gardevoir, they stood down and let me pass.

They led me to a room, where a gardevoir was waiting. This gardevoir was different though. It was wearing a much more extravagant dress compared to the traditional dressing of a normal gardevoir.

_Gardevoirs have a higher status than the rest. Males are treated like crap in this society... _I thought. The matriarch nodded. I flinched.

(In our eyes, much different than man's society, males are at the bottom at the social ladder,) she said. "Everybody sit someplace, make yourself comfortable." The matriarch said.

All the gardevoirs sat while all the gallades remain standing. I stood there awkwardly as well.

The first gardevoir spoke. "We brought back the objective, your honor, and we are awaiting your further instructions."

"We will decide what we will do about him." The matriarch said, coldly. The room fell silent.

"What do you guys think about him?" The matriarch said, addressing gallades with the same coldness.

"Your Highness, we have no opinions." A gallade announced after a brief round of glances and mental exchanges among the gallades.

_Smart of them not to tell me what led to that decision. Telepathic talk is so annoying..._

"You had something to say?" The matriarch asked, looking directly at me. I looked up in shock.

"No, your Highness," I said, shaking my head. All the gardevoirs frowned, I swear to you.

"It's not a very good idea to lie in this place, I will warn you ahead of time." The matriarch said, turning to the other gardevoirs.

_Mentally built in lie-detectors too huh?_

"What do you ladies think," the matriarch asked, with a much kinder tone. It was different from the tone spoken to the gallades.

"I have no objections, however, I can foresee that he may bring us trouble in the future." Said a gardevoir.

"Ah... Rachael, your careful nature is always present. Yes, I can foresee that too. How about you?" She asked.

"I think we should get rid of him." Another gardevoir said.

_Why though..._

"I would like to question your motives behind that if you don't mind." The matriarch said.

"What if he is one of the same group of humans we have encountered. From what we know, he has also come from that civilization." The gardevoir said. The matriarch nodded.

"I will take that into consideration. Emily, what is your opinion. I'm the most curious about your decision," The matriarch asked.

"I'm honored. I agree with all your precautions, Rachael and Elizabeth. But you must think about the benefits it can bring if we manage to control it. Humans are very advanced in their technologies. Only humans know their own weakness. So if we have a human..." Emily explained, "we can ultimately understand how to overthrow them. Or at least enslave their kind." The matriarch nodded.

"My thoughts exactly." The matriarch nodded, smiling. "All in favor of executing?"

_Executing?!_

The two gardevoirs raised their hands.

_Oh hell no, that's a two-one situation. I'm dead._

"All in favor of keeping?"

Emily rose her own hand.

"Men." The matriarch said, looking at them. They looked at each other once more before concluding a decision. They all rose their hand.

_Whew, I get to live then. But..._

"Alright. We clearly see a result and will reach the decision of keeping it."

_It? What am I? An object?_

"Emily, if you would lead him to where he would stay. I have another task for your group afterwards." The matriarch told her. "May I ask where Luke went?"

"Oh. I killed him for disrespect. I have wanted to let him off the hook to live, however, he stepped over the line too many times." Emily explained.

_Disrespect? It was Emily who got annoyed at him and killed him. What is wrong with this whole system?_

"Alright. I thought he would have the potential to grow into a strong gallade. I'm terribly sorry for assigning him to your group." The matriarch said. I sensed something sinister behind the apology.

_Fake apologies? I bet she assigned that poor gallade to Emily's group knowing she would murder him._

_"_Come on human, we are going to leave," Emily said, waiting for me. I shuffled after Emily. After we left the building, Emily shoved me. I almost fell to the floor, but I stood my ground.

"Woah woah, what happened," I said, stepping back.

"What are you thinking?" Emily snapped. "What do you think you did?!"

"Exist?" I guessed. That didn't please Emily what so ever. Her fist was clenched to keep her anger in check.

"Don't you understand your thoughts were broadcasted throughout the room extremely clearly?" She snapped. Racheal and Elizabeth watched silently from the corner. The gallades didn't dare to interfere either.

"Well, I didn't know?" I protested.

"Your thankful that her highness is the forgiving type," Emily said while walking away. "Otherwise you would have been dead in the beginning."

_So I can't think to myself. Speaking is a no-no. Thinking is a no-no. What am I supposed to do then?_

_"_Stop thinking then," Rachael said, walking after Emily.

"But how am I supposed to do that?!" I called after them.

"Figure it out then," Elizabeth said. I shuffled after them.

They finally brought me to a terribly really building.

"Your new home," Emily said. "We will be back at night. Try not to make any trouble."

With that, they left in a rush.

_Okay... so I'm stuck with this dump house. I mean..._ I thought, looking around. _I could fix this place up a little._

I started to clean the floor. I grabbed the broom in the corner of the closet I discovered. I started to sweep the floor. It was a much more difficult task than I thought. There was a ton of dust to get rid of. It was probably years since the last person cleaned this place. After collecting the particles in a pile, I brought it outside the house. I went back in the house shortly after.

_Okay... how am I supposed to fix the drafts... _I thought, looking at the open holes in the walls. I started to look around the abandoned closet. As I looked around, I found some nails in an empty box. _Oh! I have an idea._

I walked to the woods that was right outside my backdoor and started to gather wood. I found the most favorable pieces of wood and brought it back to the house. I started to hammer the wood in place.

_There, that should block out the drafty winds._

I spend the rest of the day cleaning up and tidying my house. I had rested on the couch before heading off the woods.

_If I can just find a stream of water... oh wait, I know. We saw one while walking here. Maybe... _I thought while heading into the woods.

_Why am I stuck here though... I could have just lived with myself in the woods until I died or something. This is a much better situation than the one I'm in now. _I thought while climbing over a log. I spotted a still body of water. _Nothing is inhabiting it..._

I decided to turn back towards the village. I entered my house through the back door. I looked at myself in the dusty mirror. My 5'4 height towered over the small mirror that rested on the wall. My hair was dirty and splattered to the side.

_Maybe I'll look around the village to see what there is. _I thought, leaving the house. I traced my way back to the main building. More and more gallades and gardevoirs were watching me. I started to get uncomfortable. Remembering their abilities to read my mind, I decided to look at the sky to lure away any thoughts. The strategy remained effective until I bumped into something. I fell back onto my butt and looked up. A gallade was peering down at me with an unpleasant grin.

"What are you doing here in our village, human?" The gallade asked, extending it's arm blades.

_This guy... blades are necessary to avoid. _I thought as I walked around him.

_"Try not to get into any trouble," _I remembered Emily telling me. The gallade pushed me back again.

"Ignoring me?" He said, "Come on, your a chicken if you run away from a fight." He prepared a fighting stance. I stood there looking at him blandly until he charged at me. I didn't know what to expect, so I was hit squarely in the chest. I slid across the ground.

_Crud that hurt. _I thought, getting up. I felt my chest gasp for air from the previous compression.

This time, I decided I had no choice but to fight back.

More gallades and gardevoirs gathered to watch. I watched as the gallade leer at me. I waited for him to attack. As he ran, I grabbed his stomach. To my surprise, he was lighter than I thought. His blades grazed my cheek, causing me to bleed a little.

I lifted his weight across my shoulder and hurled him to the ground. He landed on his back painfully.

"Gah!" He said, standing back. He glared at me once more.

_Come at me you little stick. _I thought as I signaled him to come at me once more. He screamed as he charged at me once more. I ducked last minute and swept my leg out. To my displeasure, he leaped over it. He swung out his arm blade thing and cut me across the arm. I ducked down to avoid the second swing. He lashed out his leg in an attempt to kick me. I dodged, however, he didn't see my incoming fist which struck his jaw. I heard a crack. Pain flared from my knuckles as my hand hit his jaw. The gallade fell to the floor, not moving.

I looked around. At this point, I knew I was in deep doo-doo. A few of the gallades backed off.

"Any more?" I asked, cockily. Another gallade decided to rush at me. I swept back and hit him in the torso with my elbow. I was about to hold him in a submission hold when I heard a voice.

"Stop!" I heard. I felt my body paralyze once more before being lifted into the air. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Emily's arms glow.

"Everybody back to their houses. Curfew now!" Emily yelled. Everybody shuffled off. Emily dropped me from the air. A huge rack of pain hit my senses as I fell onto the hard concrete. I watched as she left.

"Where are you going?" I called.

"Away from you, you sickening human," she said, before disappearing.

I laid cripple on the concrete floor. The fall from the air successfully cracked my left arm and left leg.

"Damn you Emily... fucking gardevoirs..." I whispered. I struggled to get back up on my feet.

I saw Rachael out of the corner of my eye.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, lifting me up with psychic.

"Emily dropped me from mid-air," I said.

"Why's that?" She asked. We headed towards my house.

"Some gallade decided to pick on me," I said, defensively.

"Did you fight back at least?" She asked, heading towards my tiny house.

"I did. I think I was winning too." I said, limping in the air.

"Hmph," she said. We arrived at my pathetic looking house. She laid me on the couch and performed some magic of her own. A pale pink light eliminated and my wounds were healed instantly.

"Thank you," I said, moving my arm.

"Don't mention it. This will be the last time I'll be helping you anyways." Rachael said, looking away. "I heard from our units that there may be an invasion coming our way. So be prepared."

I nodded and she left. I slumped onto the couch.

_Invasion? What the hell are they talking about_? I thought. I didn't think too much of it because I was able to sleep into oblivion.


	2. Attacked

**The response to the first chapter, not going to lie, rather surprised me a little? I originally didn't really want to continue this book, but some people wished for it to continue. Plus, I already finished about 20 chapters ahead, so I guess I can touch up on each chapter a little bit. **

**But be warned, the writing style of these chapters are much different (compared to my other books), and I personally cringed while reading some of these. If you guys don't mind, then I guess I'll keep on uploading these chapters.**

**Also, spellcheck is going wacky on my browser, so uh... expect some errors. **

**Feel free to comment what you guys feel about this book currently. I won't be able to rewrite the whole thing (cuz I'm lazy), but I may be able to edit parts of it. **

I opened my eyes in shock. The sun has not risen yet. I woke up to the sound of gunfire. Literally. There were flying projectiles flying everywhere. Flashes of bright light here and there. I jolted up from the ground and looked outside.

There were humans attacking the village. I watched as the gallades rushed to defend the site while the gardevoirs cast spells and psychic-moves. I watched in shock as some people fell dead.

_What the hell is happening?! _I jumped as I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Private, what are you doing?" Somebody yelled. I yelped as they dragged me behind my supposed "house". He pulled me to the ground. He proceeded to kneel beside me.

"What are you doing?" He repeated, finicking with his bag. He tossed me a gun. A mateba to be specific. I examined the sleek metal carving of the weapon. "Here's my spare. Come on!"

I watched as he rushed towards the other buildings. I looked at the gun. I looked at him. I decided to follow him for the hell of it.

We snuck through all the buildings, avoiding most gallades and gardevoirs.

"What division are you in, private?" He asked, aiming his rifle.

"Uh-"

"No time to explain actually." He barked. "Incoming!"

I ducked as he threw a grenade, blowing up a group of gallades. The light from the explosion blinded me for a second. But as my eyes started to regain control, I saw the fallen group. I watched as a head rolled around until it came to a rest. I looked at its blank eyes. I looked at its detached body.

"Come on!" He said as he dragged me away from the explosion. We both rushed down the alley between buildings.

"We are we headed towards?" I panted, following him.

"Capn' Verily said to push towards that building." He said, pointing at the matriarch's house. "Since they are too strong, we might have to flank them and assassinate the queen ourselves."

"Basically a suicide mission?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said, stopping. "Say, you know any... never mind, we have company."

He pushed me around the corner of a building and watched carefully. I stopped breathing as well to eliminate any sound.

"You know that they can sense you right?" He muttered, reloading his rifle. "Even if you're dead silent. We have to beat them with speed."

He suddenly turned the corner and fired. When his magazine dropped, he took cover again.

"See?" He said, gesturing at another dead gallade. "Dead."

I suddenly felt a shiver spike up my spine. My head starts to hurt and burn. I fell to the floor in pain.

"You okay?" The guy said, rushing over to me. I shook my head and clutched it in severe pain.

"Here, take this. It will mitigate the effects of the psychics for a couple of hours." He said, presenting me a pill and a canteen.

I took the pill and laid on the floor.

_What was that? _I thought as I clenched my fist at the dwindling pain.

"The effects should kick in soon." He said, looking around. I got back up slowly.

"What was that?" I muttered.

"I don't know. My guess is the mental effect after they die." He guessed.

_Mental effect my ass. There's no way. _I looked around, but nobody was present. _I feel like I'm being watched._

"Ready?" He asked, looking at me.

"Yeah," I said, picking up the revolver. We ran across the building and reached the back of the matriarch's building. We snuck across the back.

"Alright. We made it." He said, after radioing to the captain. "Stay here."

I waited as he disappeared around the corner. I waited for a couple of seconds before he came up and gestures to me to follow him. We crept along the wall.

He stopped, which caused me to stop as well. He silently reached for another grenade. He looked at me before pulling the pin and rolling it across the hallway. We waited for the explosion to hit, but it never exploded.

"What?" He said, reaching for his last grenade.

Suddenly, he started to glow blue.

"What on earth?" He whispered while floating towards the ceiling. He started to scream in agony as pain ripples across the hallway.

"Run!" He started to scream. His arm snapped as it bent the wrong way. His tortured screams filled the hallways. He grunted as he was thrown in the floor. He was then picked up by the force and thrown to the floor again. I scrambled backward. I watched with horrified eyes at what was happening. Finally, I saw a familiar green figure.

"Emily!" I yelled. "Stop! You'll kill him!"

The figure looked up with a surprised expression, which turned into a frown.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, clearly enraged. "Are you siding with them?!"

She threw down the man with enough force to crack the wooden floor. He grunted as he tried to move his limbs to no avail. Emily walked over to me, picked me up by my collar, and forcefully pinned me against the wall. I winced at the pain that flared on my back.

"You little scum! I should have known you would side with them!" She yelled, tightening her hold.

"No! I wasn't!" I said, struggling as she tightened her hold. She narrowed her eyes before letting me go, sensing that I was telling the truth.

"It doesn't matter," she said, hands glowing. "Last words?" She picked up the crippled man by the neck.

"..."

"None?" She said, tossing him aside.

"Why... why are you... with them?" He asked, eyes glossy. He wasn't looking at me, but the words were burned into my memory. My mind flashed back to times of my previous life.

I heard cracking noises, which brought me back to the present. I watched in shock as the man twitched in agony and died on the floor. Cracked spine.

"Come on," Emily said while walking away. I shuffled past the corpse and followed Emily down the hallway.

_That bitch! She just killed him right on spot! _I thought.

Emily whirled around and slapped me. The hit stung as I staggered in pain.

"That'll be your last warning before I rip your insides out." Emily warned.

_Oops. _I thought. We both kept walking down the hallways.

(There's more.) Emily warned, holding her arm out. I nodded.

(Wait here, I'll be back,) Emily said, pointing to an empty room. I shuffled off into the dark room and waited.

I counted the number of seconds that passed. I fumbled with my fingers, waiting silently in the dark.

In the background, there were grunts and yelling. I winced every time I heard something snap.

_Another person dead..._ I thought.

(I'm back,) Emily said, looking around. I looked at her blood-drenched dress.

"You should clean that," I commented.

"You should tell that to yourself." She said, rolling her eyes. I looked down at my clothes. It was in fact very dirty. I looked back in disgust at the mud-stained jeans.

(Come on.) Emily said. (I have to check back on the matriarch.)

I stood up and followed her down the building. As we were walking, I stared in front. Occasionally, I secretly glanced at Emily. She had a concerned expression on her face.

_She must be communicating with the others. _I thought.

(Hold on.) Emily said. (Rachael is encountering trouble. We have to hurry.)

We both raced down the north wing of the building. As we approached, Elizabeth and Rachael were fending off the invaders. Barrages of bullets were fired and Rachael trapped all of them psychically. However, I could visibly see that she was on the verge of collapsing. Emily ran to help.

(Go! Take cover!) Emily yelled while running.

Despite my powerless situation, I didn't want to leave them. Emily, while protecting the other two gardevoirs with a psychic shield, used her other hand to toss me away. I landed on the floor, away from danger. I landed gently on the wooden floor and got up.

I grabbed the revolver from before and opened the chamber. I peered inside the fully loaded 6-shot weapon. I snapped the cylinder revolver into place. I ran across the empty hallway.

I kept running until I was around the whole building. Blood was pounding in my head as I got a rush of adrenaline. I saw the shooters. I saw somebody prepare a rocket. I pulled out my revolver and fired. I was able to get a clean hit and take out the person. I slid across the hallway and wretched somebody's head. I heard a sickening sound of a crack and let go of the head. I proceeded to grab their military knife and run. As I was running, I saw Emily in the corner of my eye get hit by a bullet.

_No! _I thought. I quickly located somebody aiming at a gallade and delivered a knife through the air. The blade spun satisfyingly through the air and implanted itself in the man's stomach. He growled in pain, trying to spot the knife-thrower. I continued to run across the hallway and encountered a group of humans.

"What are you doing!" Somebody yelled.

"Get here!" He said, attempting to grab me. I stepped back.

"Wait a second! You don't even have a uniform!" He yelled. After his realization, I buried a bullet into his head. The other soldiers noticed and fired on me.

I felt a projectile enter and exit my body cleanly. I grunted in pain and dove for a wall. I examined the wound. It was bleeding freely. I heard their footsteps get closer. I aimed my revolver at the corner where they would appear. To my surprise, a gallade appeared. He gave me a thumbs up before running off.

_Wasn't he the gallade from before? _I thought before getting up.

(Where are you?) I heard Emily ask.

_Somewhere on the opposite side of the building. _I thought, looking around.

(Argh, can you get over here? We need a little help.) She told me.

_I got shot in the abdomen. _I thought. _I don't think I can if the blood continues to pour out like this._

(Try to cover it for now!) She urged_. _I tried to apply pressure to the wound and slow the rate of the bleeding.

(Gah, I'll get over to you. Give me a couple of seconds.) She said. I sat against a wall and stared at the opposite wall. Suddenly, Emily appeared in front of me, startling me a little.

"What was that?" I asked.

(Teleportation. Keep your voice down, there might be other people around. We are all communicating by telepathy.) She said. She moved my arm away. She pulled up my shirt to examine the shot wound closely. I quickly noticed that she blushed a little. She proceeded to perform Heal Pulse and got back up.

"How about your wounds?" I whispered, pointing at her bleeding arms.

(We are much stronger than you think.) Emily told me. (Don't worry about me.)

I was a little worried honestly, but I didn't say anything. Emily checked the wound a second time. She tugged down my shirt and got back up.

(There, should be fine by now. I have to go!) she said, disappearing again. I groaned and got up to my feet.

_Anything I need to do? _I asked.

(Get over here to the other side!) I heard a new voice said.

(Cause disturbance at the left-wing!) I heard another voice say.

_Who are you? _I thought.

(Just do as we say!) the voices barked.

_Alright..._

I grabbed my mateba and ran.

_Where's the left wing? I have no idea where I am... _I thought.

(Just go straight and take the left turn.) Emily urged. (We are holding them off for now. I think their reinforcements are coming. So hurry!)

I did as Emily instructed. I glanced out the window. There were some people running here. I focused my eyes on something that was following them. A tank.

_Watch out! _I called, as the tank fired. I fired the remaining three bullets in the revolver and ran to Emily's location. I saw the gardevoirs shredding through the enemy. Some of the gallades were fighting the remaining melee fighters.

(Come on! We are going to take care of the thing outside,) Emily said. We both ran outside and were met with yet another barrage of bullets. Emily blocked them all with a shield. I shot, with the last round, the person who was on top of the tank near the deployed gun. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw somebody throw a flaming bottle filled with a clear liquid. Emily noticed the projectile and kicked it towards the tank.

"Watch out!" They yelled as the tank caught on fire. The driver struggled to get out and was burned alive. Everybody in the clearing floated and was smashed to the ground. Emily breathed heavily as she too sunk to the ground in fatigue. I ran to her side. The others in the building have ran outside to take care of the fallen.

"Where's the leader?" Rachael asked. I shrugged.

"Here." I heard. I turned to see Elizabeth dragging a man by his feet. Judging by the state of the person, he was probably unconscious. Elizabeth brought him to Rachael and dropped him to the ground. Rachael looked at Emily.

"Bring her to the medic," Rachael said to the gallades. They nodded and proceeded to carry Emily to the tent nearby.

"You should probably go to the medic as well," Rachael advised me, as she and Elizabeth walked away. I followed the gallades and entered the warm tent. They laid Emily on the mattress in the corner. I sat next to her on the chair across from her. A gardevoir came by.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, tending Emily's wounds.

"I-I... was told to come to here under Rachael's order," I said carefully. She nodded.

"Here, eat this." She brought me a bowl with purple-ish powder in it. "It'll speed up the healing process."

"Alright." I took the bowl from her and ate it. It was sweet (I was kind of surprised).

"Will she be okay?" I asked, gesturing to Emily.

"Why would you care?" She asked, not looking at me.

I was about to reply but she cut me off. "I was just joking. But yes, she will be fine. Nothing to worry about."

"Alright." I mumbled. The gardevoir went away, pulling the curtains to shield us from other patients. I sat and watched her sleeping face. I noticed the delicate skin which was clear of concern or problems. She looked completely different from when she was sleeping than when she was awake and on duty. I sighed and closed my eyes.

_What on earth am I supposed to do?_

After a couple of minutes, I left the tent so that Emily could rest. Everybody was rushing around to repair damages that the humans caused. All the gallades and gardevoirs looked at me with a slight tint of hatred behind their stares. I felt them when they looked at me. I would blink a couple of times before the hatred faded away like it wasn't there at all. I wandered around, not knowing how I could help. I walked past the burning tank. Black smoke rolled up to the rising sun. The corpse of the driver was still there. I pulled out the driver and did what I could with it. I dug a grave with scrap metal I found and buried the body. I peered inside the machine. All the lights were blinking red. The insides were dripping with kerosene and alcohol. I sniffed at the disgusting mixture and climbed inside.

_Anything useful I could use... _I thought as I crawled around the insides. I opened a hatch and found an emergency survival kit. I opened it to find a heavy bolt sniper rifle. I looked through the scope.

_It's a little dirty... _I observed as I used my shirt to clean the junk out. I peered inside and saw ammunition.

_I think this shell fits the revolver. Hm... _I thought as I popped open the mateba. I pushed a new canister and closed it with a satisfying click. I pushed the supplies outside the hatch.

I turned to notice the tank started to shutter. I opened the engine hatch. The alcoholic mess was getting into the engine. I blinked.

I only had time to blink before the whole engine blew up.

I grunted as I was knocked to the ground. The tank was yet again engulfed in fire.

I yelped as I pushed the supplies away from the flaming mess. I sighed and hooked up a sled so that I could pull the things home. I eventually made it back to the house and sort through the things.

I put the heavy rifle on a wooden shelf on the wall and placed the mateba on the table next to it. I sorted through the mess of bullets and organized them into separate boxes. I spend the rest of the morning cleaning up the house, sanding down the guns, and lounging around pondering my fate.

A knock sounded at the door. I think it was around two if I remember correctly.

"Who's there?" I called, not moving from my comfortable spot on the couch. The door opened. Emily walked in. It looks like she has recovered, but a few bandages were on her arms and leg.

"Shouldn't you announce your name before coming in?" I chimed.

"Does it look like I care?" She said, sarcastically. "Anyways, matriarch assigned us on a task."

"Oh, so your here to say your precious goodbyes? How kind." I teased. Emily blushes and then frowned, but I could feel that she was smiling behind all seriousness.

"If you continue to annoy me, I'll execute you." She said. "But seriously, the matriarch explained everything at the meeting but you weren't there."

"I didn't even know we had one," I said, blandly.

"That's fine, the matriarch didn't want to call you anyways." She said, looking around. "I see that you have cleaned up this place."

"A little," I said, still thinking.

_Didn't want to call me?_

"No, she says not to take things personally," Emily told me. "Plus, other gallades were hostile towards humans so... being there would make some conflict."

"Oh, okay," I said.

"Come on, the prisoner wanted to speak to you." She said, leaving. I groaned as I got up from the couch. I grabbed my dirty coat from the hanger and rushed out in the cold.

"What does that person want to say." I asked.

"Like I know." Emily said.

We both walked to the matriarch's building and headed downstairs. The gallades allowed us into the basement.

"Is it like a prison here?" I asked, looking around. It was pretty empty.

"No, a meeting holder. A cellar or a safe building." Emily told me. She led me to a room that was enclosed with a giant metal door.

(He's inside.) Emily told me. I nodded and walked in. I saw a man sitting behind a desk. He was wearing his uniform which showed off his badges. He looked fairly old and wary. He had grey hair and a finely trimmed beard.

"Nice to meet you." I said, shaking his hand.

"Sergeant Verily." He said, grimly. I sat down on the metal chair. The mateba clanged as I sat down.

"Oops, sorry." I said, taking the gun out. I put it on the table. The captain looked at the gun. He had a tiny smile on his face.

"Problem?" I asked him.

"No. I just... Sergeant Greg had that revolver." He said, eyes glossy.

"Greg?" I said, recalling the man who I met first. "I have seen him during the attack. He gave me this as a spare."

He nodded. "He has always been a kind one."

We both sat silent.

"He lived a wonderful life. Had a wife, three kids. It's terrible, getting dragged into this bloody war." He said grimly. He knows about his death, I sensed. He peered at me.

"I'm an old man. 83 years of age. I had to fight in this war. I had nothing against these wonderful creatures. You know, when I was young, we were friends. I went on those blasted Pokémon journeys. I had a fennekin as my first Pokémon. Ah... Grace was always with me on those journeys. She grew up into a wonderful Pokémon. It was a joy, training Pokémon's and becoming friends. That's when it went bad. Religion, politics, and hatred all clashed at once. A war erupted." He said, looking at the gun. "I fought as one of the thousands of generals. The fennekin was... killed... at least that's I heard from my parents... It was so stupid. Man with technology at hand while Pokémon's had force of nature at theirs. Man rushed in with no hindsight into their powers. After years of bitter fighting, some cities were backing down. Peaceful towns started to pop up. The darn government started to blackmail them and ruin their economy. People were too afraid of the genocide that was happening, so everybody is fighting. I was still leading them while this whole thing was happening. I still had my wife waiting for me at home. I did wish to see them again."

I watched as his eyes grew misty. He looked up and smiled weakly.

"That was my story." He said. "What's yours?

"I..." I mumbled. "I was kicked out of human society. I was blamed for suspected of a crime. It was helping a Pokémon at that time. Though... I never had any contact with the Pokémon's back then." I folded my hands on the table. "I wandered a couple of years as a nomad. I met a kirlia in the mountains a few years ago. It was blizzarding. The poor thing was in the cold so I helped it. Though... I had an urge to leave it alone as well."

He nodded. "Besides that, I was then led to this camp by a bunch of gardevoirs and gallades because I helped the kirlia."

"...Perhaps I can contact your family in some way or another?" I proposed. He smiled.

"I hope would be able to," He said. "Sadly, I have nothing that I may write it on."

"I can remember it." I said. He laughed softly.

"The youth has certainly grown more mature than our generation." He said.

We both sat silent again. _He just avoided my question..._

"Can you promise me something?" He asked. I looked up. He pulled something out of his pocket. A mask. He slides it across the table. I watched as the mask slide slowly and arrived to a stop a few inches from my hand. I looked at the smiling figure. The dark eyes burned into my soul. I reached a hand out and felt the sleek plastic edging.

"This was a mask I was given when I was a young man. It was from a notoriety." He said, watching me examine the mask. I put it to my face and looked through it. "It can bend your voice a little. When speaking through it, it will deepen your voice a little. I haven't used it and didn't get a chance to. Please... put it through good use."

I put the mask away and thanked him. He smiled weakly.

"Our time is short." He told me. "I... before you go... I just wanted to tell you that there are dangers ahead."

I nodded slowly.

"Be careful, people are not ready yet to become at peace with the Pokémons. What you're doing... is very brave."

The door knocked. Emily came in.

(Done yet?) she asked.

_Um-_

"I'm ready," Verily said, getting up. He shook my hand. He clutched me in a hug, which I didn't provide resistance too. He pounded me on the back before leaving with Emily. I sat down on the chair. I imagined a man like him.

A person who grew up with Pokémon's to become friends with them. I imagined when his fennekin was killed and how it impacted him.

I could have imagined that he was terribly heartbroken. He was then dragged into war against what he believes for the sake of living and being respected. I sat there thinking. I thought of his past. I thought about mine.

I thought about my future. I took out the mask. It was still smiling at me. I couldn't help but take a deep liking in this mask.

I sat there for a couple of minutes.

Maybe hours.

Thinking.

(You okay?) I heard somebody ask. It was Emily. She was standing by the doorway.

"What happened to him?" I asked, only guessing his fate.

(We executed him.) she said. (You coming or not?)

I sighed. "Alright."

We both walked out into the fading sky.

(It's dark.) she commented. (What were you doing down there the whole time?)

"Nothing," I said. She didn't say anything. We both stopped in front of my building.

"We are going to leave the village at midnight," Emily said. "You better pack up. We won't be coming back for a couple of weeks."

"Alright," I said, waving at the disappearing figure. I went back into my room.

_A trip huh? _I thought, taking out a backpack. I stuffed the bag with food and ammunition. I put the revolver in my pocket and slept on the couch a little.

I opened my eyes a little while later. I glanced at the sky. It was pitch black. The type of black that was so dark you thought you were dead.

I sighed and sat up on my creaky bed. I clutched my bag, slung the sniper rifle over my shoulder and headed outside.

As I was walking, I listened to the sound of the crickets. I listened to their chirps and the dead silence of the night.

"Finally," Rachael said when I arrived.

"We were waiting for you," Elizabeth said.

"Sorry." I apologized.

"No need to. Come on," Emily said. We trudged off into the night.


	3. Travel

**Uh, hi.**

**I'm sorry that I haven't posted recently, so I just decided to release this earlier so that I don't have to feel guilty. (For people who are wondering what heckling happened to Time Heals All Pain, I haven't stopped that yet.)**

**I'm going through some real personal problems, which is making me unable to write (writers block) and yeah. Also, I have other things that I have to do, so that's also a limiting factor. I only write when I'm on the subway, walking, or during my lunch, so that's why I take so long. Sorry~**

**Anyways, enjoy this I guess. The next chapter should come up very soon. (I hope)**

We decided as a group to stop somewhere in the woods.

It was so dark that I couldn't see two feet in front of me. Winter nights were always very dark at night. It was... let me see... October? November? I have spent so much time away from human civilization that I didn't even know what month it was... I dunno, it was November then.

Anyways, the point is that it was really dark. I had no clue where we were, but the gardevoirs seemed like they knew where they were going. I trudged through dirt and cement to keep up with them. We broke camp and hitched up the tents.

I momentarily paused because I didn't bring myself a tent. Luckily one of the gallades brought a tent for me, but I had to share with another gallade. His name was Kyle, I think.

The gardevoirs were all comfortable sharing amongst themselves. I slept in the corner of the tent. It didn't take me long to fall quickly asleep.

I woke up to somebody shaking me.

(Wake up, we're leaving again.) Emily said to me telepathically.

_What? Right now? _I complained, glancing outside. _It's still dark._

"It's already five in the morning." She told me, with a surprisingly gentle tone. "Come on."

I grunted and complied with what she said. I haven't been getting enough sleep, which is starting to impact my health.

I started to randomly getting blurred vision. Other times, I feel my muscles and bones break down. Kyle jokingly told me it should be my training. I looked at him unimpressed.

* * *

We traveled mile by mile each day.

Sometimes Kyle would teach me how to use the sniper rifle I found back at camp.

"It has been a long time since I used one of these." He said, getting down. He rested the barrel on my backpack for stability. He got down on his knees and looked through the scope. "Dang, these are one of the heavy bolt rifles." I shrugged.

"Anyways." He said, rolling over. I kneeled down beside him.

"You see that circle thing in the middle?" He asked as I examined the design of the crosshairs.

"Yeah," I said.

"It's just like in the video games, to be honest." He said, adjusting something on my scope. "Though, you have to get the calculations correct. A centimeter over could mean that you missed your target about a football field away."

We spent the afternoon taking turns shooting the rifle and practicing on mini rock targets. Kyle, for some reason, had to take constant breaks.

"Hey, why do you need to take so many breaks?" I asked one day, as we were eating our lunch away from the rest of the group.

"Hm. So like, you know how a gun works right?" He asked. I nodded. "Good. So the impact or recoil plus the loud noises coming from the gun gives me constant headaches."

"Oh," I said, still eating. "Are you okay right now?"

Kyle tilted his head and had a thoughtful expression before telling me that he was fine.

I kept asking when we were going to be there until Emily threatened to rip my arm off.

_That gardevoir needs to chill. _I thought, huffing.

(What did you say?) she said, turning around threateningly.

"Nothing," I mumbled. However, I could tell that we were getting very close to the city that we needed to go to.

We all were sitting by the campfire just the night before we arrive.

"Alright," Emily said looking around. "Everybody here?"

We all nodded.

"All right. We will review our plans then I guess." She said, pacing around. "The city we are going to is called Sakura. They are a neutral city, which means we won't attract much attention for being gardevoirs."

She looked at the gallades. "-and gallades."

I inwardly snorted.

"Anyways, one of the representatives are coming to this city. We are suspicious that he will do shady activities." Emily said, finally sitting down. "We will track him step by step and eliminate him anyways. We have to be careful to not alert the whole city,"

"Aight," I mumbled.

"We will make up small teams for the... hem... assassination. Kyle, Elizabeth, and Scott will be primary support. In case we have danger incoming. Franjola and Rachael will be our outlooks." Emily said. "Mr. Human and I will be on the sight to spy."

Everybody nodded. I looked at the fire. It burned yellow and orange. A little taint of red too.

"Clear?" She asked, looking at us. We all nodded. "Dismissed."

I headed back to the tent and sat thinking.

(You good?) Kyle said, crawling into the tent. I gave him a reassuring smile. He laid on the bed. I laid on the mattress.

I looked at the sky through the tiny plastic opening. I saw flickers of red, white and blue. It was beautiful. I imagined the light bouncing off the stars coming to my eyes. The vision of time that is countless years away.

"You still awake?" I heard Kyle mutter. I flinched.

_How did you know I was awake_? I asked.

"Shhh... use your voice. Others will hear you." He said.

"Alright..." I whispered.

"I'm kind of a feeling Pokémon too. Your nervousness is literally keeping me awake." He muttered.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"No, all good." He said. "Don't think about it too much."

"Like I could..." I whispered back. I heard him turn in his covers.

"Goodnight man. You need to sleep." He said, before going silent. I sighed. I looked up at the sky constantly. I think I fell asleep at some point.

* * *

The bright sun was shining into my face. It was hot and uncomfortable. I turned away from the light and grumbled, slightly pissed off that my sleep was interrupted by the sunlight. I couldn't go back sleep so I decided to get up. I rubbed my eyes and stretched. I looked at my stomach. My muscle outlines were fading.

_I need to get more exercise. _I thought, wearing my clothes. I glanced at Kyle's mattress, to see that he wasn't there. I got outside the tent. Nobody was there.

_You guys didn't abandon me, did you? _I called.

(No, we are looking for water supplies. Just sit tight.) Emily replied.

_Aight. _I mumbled tiredly. I sat on a log and dragged my rations over. I started to eat the dry and stale foodstuffs that I brought along. I peered inside the boxes and found things that I didn't like. I reached at the bottom of the bag.

_What's this? _I thought. I took out a metal container that had a post-it on it. A smiling face was drawn on it.

I sighed and decided to eat the crackers that I brought. I continued to eat before I saw the group of gardevoirs and gallades approach me. Emily tossed me my canteen. I caught it, surprised by its weight. It was refilled with fresh stream water.

_Thanks. _I thought. They all gathered and started to eat. They ate their food rather quickly and started to pack up. I slung my rifle over my shoulder and watched Kyle collapse the tent.

"We are ready to go whenever you guys are," Elizabeth called.

Together, we all walked on the side of the road. We trudged over tall grass and fields.

I shielded my eyes from the sun. I saw the city from far away. We were walking for a couple of minutes before we arrived at the city's border. I saw many other Pokémon wandering around.

There were a lot of other humans as well. I was feeling uncomfortable being around a civilization.

We were greeted by guards who checked our bags. A guard took my rifle and examined it. He took a yellow sticker and tapped it to the muzzle.

"Means it got checked," The guard told me.

I nodded. We all passed the border.

"Hm..." Emily mumbled. "Come on."

We followed her down an alley to a door. She knocked on the wooden door. A slot opened, revealing a gallade's eye. The slot closed again. The door opened, revealing a gallade who was wearing slum-like clothing.

"Come in!" He said, welcoming us in. I was a little surprised by his hostility.

"How are you guys?" The gallade said, hugging each of the gardevoirs. The gallades fist-bumped him. He looked at me, shaking my hand.

"Who's he?" He asked right afterward.

"Person we are working with," Emily said, lounging on a couch.

"Wow, since when you guys were inviting humans in?" He said, taking our bags.

"Eh, since a week ago." She said, nonchalant.

"I'll bring you to your rooms." He said. We walked around the whole kitchen and saw the rooms. I was assigned a small room with a bed in the corner. I put down my rifle on the table. I put back belonging on the table and went to join the others.

"Another task?" The gallade asked, in the kitchen. I heard the water running.

"Yeah," Rachael said.

"I haven't seen you guys in so long." The gallade expressed. "How's camp?"

"It's going okay," Emily said. "It got attacked though."

"By who?"

"Humans," said Elizabeth. The gallade came out with a freshly prepared set of snacks.

"Eat. You guys must be hungry after traveling." He said, taking a seat next to Emily. "How long are you guys staying for?"

"You want to kick us out already?" Elizabeth said, pretending to be offended. The gallade laughed.

"You guys know I didn't mean it that way." He reassured.

"We are just staying for a couple of days. We'll be out in no time." Emily said, leaning on him affectionately.

"I don't care how long you guys stay, just as long as you guys keep out of trouble." The gallade said, laughing.

"On the many encounters we had, we have never achieved that," Kyle said. We all shared a chuckle. I reached forward to take a piece of candy.

"What time is this going to take place?" The gallade asked.

"Ten?" Elizabeth said, looking over to Emily for confirmation. Emily nodded.

"We'll need the veil of the dark to hide in," Emily said.

"Are you guys going to kill him or what?" The gallade asked.

_Me?_

"I mean... he is from a hostile city, so we will keep an eye on him," Emily said.

_Oh, the target. Never mind._

"And take him out with that big gun?" The gallade asked. "What type?"

"Heavy bolt sniper rifle," I said. The gallade nodded.

"You might want a suppressor on that." The gallade commented. "Those things are deafening."

_Maybe that's why Kyle kept getting headaches._

"You don't you guys walk around the city? Go for a walk or buy something," Emily proposed. I shared a glance with a gallades. They shrugged.

"Alright then," I said, getting up.

"Stay out of trouble," Rachel commented.

We all left the alley.

"Who's that gallade?" I asked.

"He's the one that works in the city. He provides shelter for us to live in for now. He used to live at the camp, but the matriarch thought it might be a better idea for him to live in the city." Franjola explained.

"Wait- is that why he's deformed?" Scott asked.

"Deformed?" I cut in.

"He doesn't have any blades like us," Kyle said.

"Oh..."

"Don't underestimate him though-" said Franjola.

"Yeah like that one time you challenged him to a spar on his first day." Kyle chuckled.

"Oh shut up. I thought he was an easy target." Franjola said.

"Uh-huh. You got destroyed." Kyle said. We laughed. I looked around. The city was filled with flashing lights from screens. I saw advertisements for everything: toothbrush, phones, health insurance.

"You guys wanna go to a bar or something?" Scott asked.

"Get drunk before a mission?" Franjola said.

"True..."

"You just wanted to hit up with a girl right?" Kyle said. "Damn, right before a mission too..."

"No! Can you guys stop ganging up on me?" Scott said. We all laughed again.

We spend the rest of the day at a cafe. It was nice and serene. I ordered a cup of black coffee and added a ton of milk and sugar into it. The rest of the gallades drank theirs plain.

We sat around and got to learn each other a bit more. Scott was the oldest member who served the matriarch the longest. Kyle and Franjola came shortly afterward. They were all born in the village and were brought up to be fighters. The matriarch devised a secret army for scouting and assassinating which led to the three being the first members because they showed a great deal of loyalty and bravery. I learned that Elizabeth was the first leader of the three, but she quit after failing the first mission.

"She probably didn't want to lose the status of being a gardevoir," Scott said.

Rachael and Emily were assigned to the small division. Emily was elected leader. "Elected." She later convinced Elizabeth to join back the division, which she accepted after being annoyed for a month straight. They have traveled a lot before I arrived. They fought on frontal wars, assassination attempts, as well as spying. They would infiltrate into the government of the people and get into any information that could be useful.

By that time, we have spent a full two hours at the cafe. We decided to walk back to the alleyway.

"You know, I always wondered if Emily has a thing for Ash," Scott said while we were walking.

"Ash?" I said.

"You know... the gallade letting us stay for a couple of days."

"Oh."

"Why bring that up?" Franjola said.

"Yeah, are you interested or something?" Kyle said.

"No! It's just... I'm curious." Scott said, embarrassed.

"I mean... not that you say that... I could kind of see what you mean." Kyle said, thoughtfully. "Why, does it bother you or anything."

"I mean, it shouldn't," Franjola said, glancing at Scott who turned away shyly.

"To be honest, I don't think she likes anyone. No way anybody could get close with her."

"Nah bro, I think she's lesbian."

I bit back a laugh.

"She'll murder us if she finds out that we said that," Franjola commented.

"Nah, she's too far away," Kyle said. We walked a couple of blocks before we arrived at the doorstep. I knocked on the door and walked in. I saw the three gardevoirs sitting on the couch. I looked around for Ash but couldn't find him.

"Are we all set?" Emily asked. We all nodded. I went into my room to get my rifle. Tonight is going to be wild.


	4. Infiltration

**It's Friday and I thought about being nice, so here's another chapter. **

**Enjoy :)**

* * *

We left at around 7 at night. By that time it was already rather dark.

(See that glass building?) Emily asked, sitting on the edge of the roof. I nodded.

(That's where the meeting is held.) Emily said.

We walked to a deserted location in the city. We climbed up the stairs to reach the top of the building. By that time, I was already panting and wheezing.

(So weak, even I have more endurance than you.) Emily said while walking. I crouched at the building edge and laid my backpack.

I pulled out a magazine and counted the bullets inside. Each one was the size of my thumb. I slid the magazine back into place and loaded the bullet into the chamber.

(Be sure to have it on safety.) Emily said, looking through her binocular. (I'll translate their conversation with you.)

I gave her a thumbs up and looked through the crosshairs. I adjusted my measurements as Kyle told me to.

_Winds are not strong. _I commented, feeling the stillness of the air.

(Isn't that good?) Emily said, sitting on the edge. I looked through the scope once again and surveyed the area. There were guards in the back building as well as the front. Each one of them was communicating by earpiece. I looked at the men in the suits. I looked at the meeting room. A few agents were already sitting there. One of them kept checking the hallway.

"Looks like we are early," Emily commented. I huffed. We sat silently.

"Is there infrared?" Emily asked, poking my scope.

"No," I said.

"Hm," Emily said, leaving the scope alone.

"Aww, you messed up the scope," I complained, adjusting the dialects. Emily gave me an expression of annoyance. We stayed silent.

"How long have you been... living in the village?" I asked.

"My whole life, why?"

"Nothing," I said. "Just trying to make conversation."

"Oh..." she said, sitting down. "Why'd you have to live in the wild?"

"Like a caveman?"

"I guess."

"Well, I was... rather accused of a crime that I didn't commit. So I was banished from that city."

"Does that apply for all cities?" Emily asked me, puzzled.

"Hm... I think it applies to cities that never passed the neutrality act." I said.

"Does this city?"

"I mean... I see a lot of Pokémon's so... I guess." I said, adjusting my arms.

"Hm..." she muttered. We sat still. I looked through the scope.

"What kind of training did you do?" I asked, watching a man in a suit pacing back and forth.

"Hm... I had a special-type training at my school." Emily said, thinking. "It focused primarily on the usage of stealth and psychic-type moves. At that school, I was able to learn advance psychic-type moves such as hypnosis and dream eater. Hm... for the second half of the year, we had to go through a physical-type training. But I didn't really do well there."

"Physical?" I asked.

"Yeah, like handling a gun or a knife. Fist fighting, wrestling." Emily explained.

"You didn't do well?" I asked, smiling a little.

"No, I was probably the worst out of my division. Are you trying to imply something?" Emily asked, kicking me lightly with her foot.

"No, of course not. I would never do that." I said.

"You're bad at lying," Emily said.

"How do you know that?" I asked, curiously.

"Humans stimulate extra activities in their mind when they tell a lie," Emily said, looking over the city. "I could sense these micro-changes. That could include things like extra blood rushing to your face, a change of expression, a quiver of your eyebrow and so on."

"Hmm... being a gardevoir has its perks doesn't it?" I asked

"Not really." Emily said. "Being a gardevoir isn't all that great. Especially when you have headaches."

"Is that why Kyle took so many breaks from my lessons?" I asked.

"He had a headache? From teaching you?"

"Yeah, he had to take constant breaks," I said.

"Poor gallade. Wow, he must really like you to put up with constant headaches." Emily said.

"..."

"You know why headaches affect us the most?" Emily asked.

"Why?"

"Our powers and abilities surround the capability of the brain. We are constantly using it to monitor things around us. Even subconsciously. You know how it feels to have a headache." Emily said. "It blocks our powers which make us useless."

"Wow," I said.

"Maybe if you used your brain a hundred percent then you can be like us." Emily chided. I made a scrunched up face which made Emily laugh.

"It's probably about time," I said.

"Yeah... I see a van anyways." Emily said. That perked my attention.

"Where?"

"The fifth street from here," Emily said. I spotted the driving van. I saw the chairman sitting on the driver's right.

"Spotted."

"Good," Emily said. They drove up the street and arrived at the glass building. A group of suited people approached the van. The driver showed his ID and the chairman stepped out. I narrowed my eyes at the suspicion of his identity.

"Hey..." I said. "I think I know that guy."

"The target?"

"Yeah... he was... the judge for my case," I muttered.

"So what?"

"Cases are supposed to be equal for the victim and the accuser. So... if this guy you're talking about works for the hostile government..."

"Then basically your case was one-sided," Emily concluded. "I mean, that's probably why you lost your case."

I grunted.

"Didn't you say it was based on false evidence?" Emily asked. I nodded.

"He probably had something to do with it," Emily concluded. We looked back at the target. I watched the glass elevator glide up to the tenth floor.

"Winds are picking up," Emily commented. She was right. The breeze was growing.

"I'll adjust my shot."

"You better."

I chuckled and looked again. The door opened and both officials hugged before proceeding to sit.

(Welcome back!)

"What?" I said, confused.

"Shhh..." Emily said. (It's so nice to see you. How was your flight.)

(It was alright.) the target said, sitting down on the other side.

(Would you like to have a drink? Liquor? Wine?)

The man chuckled.

(Oldest trick to intoxicate somebody to agree on your terms.) he said. The other man smiled and chuckled as well.

(I would, however, like some of your vodka. I heard you have some of the finest here in the city.)

The man nodded and a server left the room. The server left my range of sight, so I focused back on the two men.

(How has it been for you?) the man asked.

(Work has been tough. You know, the bunch. Fricking critters. Always cause problems for our city.) the man said, relaxing. (I'm surprised that your city is still functioning with all these walking trash cans around.)

Somebody walked into a room. It was a gardevoir in a maid's costume. I cringed inside.

"Disgusting," Emily said.

(Here's your glass.) The gardevoir said, settling both glasses down.

"How come there's a gardevoir," I asked, puzzled. "I thought they only existed in the camp,"

"Must be a captured one. I've never seen this one around though." Emily told me.

"But... don't all gardevoirs look the same?" I asked. Emily glared at me. "Okay okay, never mind. They all look different."

"Shut up and focus on the task," Emily ordered. I looked through the scope again.

(It isn't all that bad to have these around though.) the drunk man explained. I think he even slapped the gardevoir in the rear.

"Can I kill him already?" I whispered, slightly annoyed.

"No."

The gardevoir shyly moved to the corner of the room.

(Alright.) the man said, getting serious. (What was the thing you wanted to show me?)

(Yes sir.) the other person said. (Would you like to examine the arms?)

He nodded. Another suited man left the room. I trailed him as he took the elevator down.

(Note the weapon, or whatever it is, are stored downstairs.) Emily said. I nodded.

A couple of minutes later, the same person came back dragging a large suitcase. He walked back into the room and opened the suitcase. It looked like some ray gun or some sort.

(Our latest product. Capable of killing anything on sight. Even by-passing Pokémon moves such as protect, psychic, and counter.) the man said. The other person examined the metal carvings of the weapon. He weighed it in both hands.

(Would you like to test it out?) the man asked. He gestured to a man in the corner who nodded and opened the door. He led them downstairs.

"We might have to change position," Emily said, getting up. She reached the edge of the building and leaped down. I followed after her but didn't jump.

(Come on!) She hissed.

"I'm going to die if I jump!" I complained, shouldering my rifle. Emily groaned.

(I'll catch you with psychic!) she said.

"Alright." I said, nervously. I jumped from the edge. For a moment, all I felt was gravity. I thought Emily was going to let me fall for a moment to my death. Luckily, I felt a cushion of invisible force which slowed me rate down. I landed on the building gently.

"Let's go!" Emily said. We surveyed the area.

(It's no good, we can't see where they are.) Emily said. (Back up plan.)

"Back up plan?" I asked. Emily didn't reply, but she ran. I followed her down the cold road. We ran to the building. She pulled me into a corner. She opened the door with ease and pushed me in.

"Find the target and kill him," Emily said. She pulled out a chip and tossed it at me. "Go to the data room and find the video footage. Gather the evidence and get out safely," With that, she was gone.

I turned around and pulled out the sleek mask.

"Alright Guy Fox, let's go," I said, wearing the mask. The plastic carvings limited my vision only slightly. I breathed heavily into the mask and ran down the hallway.

(Take the left to the elevator.) Emily told me. I slipped past two patrolling guards and boarded the elevator. I pressed the basement button. I listened to the silence and felt the elevator glide down. I felt a jerk as the elevator came to a stop. I stepped out. I froze for a second because the group was right there.

"Alright, here please." The suited man said. I shrunk into the corner, breathing heavily. The weight of the rifle was slowing me down a lot. I waited until the group disappeared into the room. I snuck up to the room and peered through the glass slit. I saw the rifle gleam.

"Here." I heard. Somebody dragged a buneary into the room.

"Oh, little bunny this is going to hurt." I heard the judge say. I felt a zip and the Pokémon was fell limp. I felt the boil of my blood as I left the door. I slipped into the hallway.

_The guy killed a buneary. _I thought.

(Just go in and kill them already.) I heard Elizabeth say.

(Keep it quiet as well, you have company around you.) Rachael said.

_Alright._

I approached the door and noted the suited man had a glock in his back pocket. The judge was holding a rifle which was what I was most concerned about.

(I've planted a mute charge, you're free to execute.) I heard Scott say.

I counted to three and kicked the glass door down. The muted shatter of glass rang in my ears as I fired two rounds into the guard. He fell and I kicked the other guard who tried to tackle me. I put another round into his gut, successfully spraying blood all over me. I finally aimed at the judge who had the rifle aimed at me. We both froze.

"Who are you?" He demanded. I noticed that he was trembling.

I didn't answer.

"Put down the gun or I'll shoot you. I'm fairly aware that you know the destructive power behind this." He barked. I smiled behind the mask and put my mateba away. He circled around me, careful to stay away from the corpse of his guards.

"Who are you?" He asked once again.

"Somebody," I said. I was faintly aware that he was much more nervous than I was, leading me to conclude I was at an advantage. His eyes quivered more than it should had and his eyes kept glancing at the shattered door.

"Take off the mask or I'll shoot you." He ordered. I stood there, not yielding. He aimed the rifle, which caused me to doubt my inference.

(He's bluffing, kill him.) Emily ordered. I took my mateba and fired at the rifle. The rifle exploded in his hands, causing him to yelp. I kicked him forcefully and he hit the wall. I approached him, kneeling. I was furious and blood rushed to my head with the murder I was about to commit.

"Let's see how we begin. You're about to die, no doubt." I said, a sinister tone. I jammed the revolver into his forehead. "Remember case 417?"

"Case 417?" He asked, confused.

I slid my mask halfway, causing his eyes to widen. An audible gunshot rang which never left my memory.

* * *

(What was rough.) Emily said.

_Enough. Where is the data room I need to go to? _I thought, search around.

(It's on the main floor. Careful, there's a lot of patrolling. There's going to be a couple of minutes before somebody finds out that they are dead.)

I climbed up the staircase and reached the first floor. I jerked back as I saw somebody walking past. I exhaled as they left. I crept open the door and bolted into an empty conference room.

(You're getting nearer)

_Like that's going to help me know where it is. _I thought.

(It's just to the left of the door around the corner. But there- watch out!)

I ducked behind a chair as a suited man walked in.

*click*"All clear. Nothing suspicious yet. James hasn't radioed in yet. Can somebody check on them?" I heard. I held my breath as he walked away.

(Hurry! I'll cause a distraction.)

I heard a miniature bursting sound which caused the lights to burn out. I listened to the dark.

"Ah, god damn it. Herald! The lights burned out again."

"I'll tell the mechanics guy to replace them tomorrow."

"Well, you better fix them now. Alert the guards."

I opened the door and snuck into the hallway. I saw flashlights beaming around, but I got into the room nevertheless.

_Uh... Kyle? Do you know how to work these kinds of things?_

(No idea, sorry bro.) I heard. I shook my head. The machines were beeping and flashing lights that were green, red, and white. I looked at the labels, in hopes of finding the correct drive. I searched the dozens of rows and finally managed to spot a tag labeling "Security." I proceeded to take out the tablet Emily gave me.

(Just plug it in. Ash designed a ducky into it.) I heard Franjola say.

I slid the cable into place and watched as the tablet woke up. It automatically reeled the surveillance cameras all into place. All the videos included the meeting, the killing and me right now. I cut the videos and uploaded them to the tablet's hard drive. I uploaded it to Ash's cloud-base server just in case.

I heard the door open, which alerted me with a jolt.

"Hey, I think somebody was in here." I heard. I quickly removed the cable and hid behind the rows.

"Be careful."

I moved silently to the other side of the room while I heard the clicks of the men walk the other way. A beam of light swept the area.

"Nothing here, maybe Joe forgot to clean up his mess."

*beep* "Guys?"

"Oh jeez, what?"

"Mayor is down. I repeat, he is down. Immediate assist needed."

(Move in to intercept just in case!) Emily ordered. (Go to the meeting room!)

"There is some presence of psychic types, be careful. Somebody activate the psychic barrier!" I heard.

I left the room and ran in the pitch black. I quickly approached the glass elevator and rode it. There were people rushing around in the plaza. An ambulance was flashing in the area and a police car zipped by.

(Hey hey! The police force is here!) Scott yelped.

(What are you doing?! Go to the room!) Emily barked.

_Ey, you guys need to chill!_

I got off the elevator and saw two men guarding the room. I quickly shot both of them with the remaining bullets in the chamber.

I kicked open the door to the meeting room and walked in the dust-filled room.

"Flashbang!" I heard. I shut my eyes closed.

There were bullets fired at me, but I couldn't see anything. I didn't feel anything either. When the dust cleared, I saw a clear psychic shield containing all the bullets.

"Well, that's a wonderful way to welcome somebody" I commented. _Thanks, Emily._

(Don't mention it.)

Everybody stood in shock. The ripples from the bullet started to frequent.

"Take cover!"

The bullets flashed and embedded into the people they flew into.

I walked into the room calmly and looked around.

"Pleasure to meet you." I said, sitting down on a empty chair.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"That concerns nobody currently." I calmly said. I took out the tablet and started to scroll through the films.

"Are you even human?" He asked. I looked up before looking back down to the tablet.

"Why of course. I speak English, do I not?"

"Are you the one who killed Mr. Flint?" He asked, referring to the judge.

"Yes," I said. "But that isn't the point why I'm here."

I slid the tablet across the table. He peered at the screen. The video of the meeting was playing.

"This is a neutral city, am I correct?" I said, looking at him through the plastic carvings.

"I hem... yes."

"Now, I took this from the database. Now imagine this, this so called 'neutral city', where everybody resides happily along with each other. Now, what they don't know is that the mayor," I pointed at him, "was secretly working on high tech weapons capable of killing anything on sight."

He sat there silently. I was faintly aware that his guards were also watching carefully.

"Now imagine if this leaked into the big screens," I told him. "Imagine what problems this would cause."

"What do you want then?" He asked.

"Well..." I thought about it for a moment. _Is there anything needed?_

_(_No, just warn him that if he becomes hostile or sides with humans we will assassinate him.)

"I have need nothing except for the loyalty of your current state. No trading with enemies. I would also like to tell you if I discover you are stepping over the set boundaries, bad things will happen." I said, thoughtfully. He nodded gravely.

(Careful, the guards are moving into your position.) Emily warned.

"Alright then," I said, getting up. "I'll be going then," I said, taking the tablet and leaving. He followed me closely. I approached the double doors and stepped through. There, a whole team of officers pointed their weapons at me.

"Gentlemen, everything is quite alright." The mayor said. They stepped aside as I walked past their ranks and left the building.

* * *

Next Morning

"God..." I said, clutching my head in pain. I was back at Ash's house. We celebrated last night with food and drinks. I slept earlier than the rest because of my fatigue. I was rudely awakened by the sun. I stumbled into the hallway and into the bathroom. I washed my face, brushed my teeth, (Ash had a box full of toothbrush for some reason) and went to grab breakfast.

"I prepared pancakes for you." I heard Kyle say.

"M'Kay, thanks, man," I mumbled. I grabbed the fork and stabbed the cake in half.

"You alright?" Kyle said, sitting down.

"Yeah, just tired." I said, eating.

"Morning y'all." I heard Franjola and Scott say. They each grabbed a bagel from the counter and ate with us.

"Man, I was hoping for more action yesterday," Scott said.

"There was no need for that." Franjola said, smearing his bagel with cream.

"That was boring as hell though. I felt like Elizabeth was going to kill me for fun." Scott said.

"She was not. You just made her pissed because you were complaining about how 'bored' you were." Kyle said, eating.

"Whatever you say, I'm just telling the truth." Scott huffed. Ash came into the kitchen. He, out of all of us, looked the most tired.

"What's up?" Scott said, leaning back.

"Ceiling." He said, sitting down with us. He brought his computer along.

"What happened to no electronics at the table?" Kyle chided.

"Fuck you too." He said, typing something on the computer. "I was late up at night, as you can probably tell, and messed around with their database."

"Messed around?" I said, puzzled.

"Yeah. You almost exposed your identity last night because you took your mask off." He said. "Not too smart if you ask me."

"What mask?" Kyle asked. I took the mask out.

"Hey, didn't we see this before?" Scott said, examining the mask.

"Where did you get this?" Franjola asked me seriously.

"Uh, Captain Verily gave this to me," I said.

"Captain Verily?" Scott asked.

"The commander of the group that attacked us," Kyle said.

"He just... gave it to you?" Franjola said, returning his attention to me.

"I mean... yeah..." I said, not sure where this whole thing was going.

"..."

"Oh! I got it!" Scott said, thinking. "The person... um... that dude who like... partnered up with a... dark type Pokémon... forgot... oh, I really forgot. But he set out to kill the psychic species."

"Oh! Right! Didn't we kill him though?" Kyle said, puzzled.

"What's the mask doing here then?" Franjola said, suspicious.

"Woah! What did I do wrong?" I said.

"I don't see anything sinister behind him though," Scott said, looking me up and down.

"That's because you're not a gardevoir Scott," Franjola said, narrowing his eyes.

"Gentlemen!" Ash barked. We shut up at once. "It doesn't matter who has the mask." Kyle slid the mask back to me. "It's merely used as a way to disguise yourself anyways. Even if he was to do anything mad," he said, glancing at me, "you could outright overpower him."

Franjola huffed and sat back in his seat.

"Anyways, look at the media," Ash said, giving me his tablet. I looked at the title.

"Mysterious being saved Sakura from Pokémon Killing Official."

I scrolled down to see people cheering. I was on the media basically. I watched the video as they demanded to know who I was.

"What's this?" I asked. "Uncertain."

"Famous? Yes." He said. "I mean, it's not that big of a deal. Just make sure you don't mess up in public."

"Sweet, now you're famous," Kyle said, lightly punching me.

Ash watched me. I sat there thinking. "It's actually not a good thing if you ask me. I think we should actually move away from the area as quick as possible."

"Why's that?" Ash said. His tone irritated me in a way. I knew and he knew the answer to the question.

"Being here means that hostile cities might want to put down the rebellion. The mayor promised neutrality, but in the end, the government is still strong enough to put down the people, meaning it's going to be a hostile state one way or another." I explained. "And if I'm correct, I'm pretty sure they sent people here to check out the rebellion."

"They?" Scott asked.

"The hostile states."

We sat silent. I heard light footsteps and turned to the sound. Elizabeth came down the stairs looking sleepy.

"Morning everybody." She said, disappearing into the kitchen. Shortly afterwards Rachael came down and also disappeared into the kitchen.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Eight seventeen," Ash said.

"I mean, if he's right about the hostile states coming, wouldn't they be raiding us right now?" Franjola said.

"I don't know," Ash said, "I'm scouring the cameras around the city and I don't see any suspicion." I peered at his screen. He set an automatic AI to spot anything that was potentially dangerous.

"What has the mayor been up to?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that," Ash said, tapping his forehead. "The whole building seemed to have gone silent. All the cameras were cut off, I couldn't find anything."

"Did they abandon the building?" I asked.

"If they have, I would have seen them," Ash said. "My guess is that they have an under-tunnel hideout."

"Under-tunnel?" I heard. Emily came down the stairs and proceeded to sit with us.

"Well, the govern-"

"Yeah, I know I know, the shutdown and everything. Then being silent." Emily said, waving her hand in dismissal. "What are we going to do about it though."

"I suggest you guys pay them another visit," Ash said.

"Another objective!" Scott called.

"Hold on just a second," Ash said. "I don't know what is in the underground shelter, so you guys better be careful."

"'You guys'" I asked.

"Yeah, you and Emily."

"Hold up, I never agreed to go on this," I said, tiredly.

"Yeah, well nobody asked," Emily said, booping my nose.

"Urgh." I said, resting my chin on my arms.


	5. Seperation

**Don't have much to say but to enjoy this chapter :)**

I spent the rest of my morning polishing my rifle and revolver. I had this frequent urge to sand down the barrel to keep the materials at top shape. After I completed my routine, I decided to throw on a coat and walk around the city.

"Be back by seven," Emily said.

"I have a curfew now?" I asked, putting my shoes on.

"Yes. If you're not back yet, I'll drop your rifle that you have been polishing so long on the floor." Emily warned, leaving.

"Meanie," I muttered before leaving. I walked out of the alley and proceeded to walk down the road. I wandered into a couple of shops just to check out what they had.

_I never had a chocolate chip cookie since I was... twelve? _I thought, examining the package. I left it where it was and kept on wandering around.

Eventually, I managed to arrive to a plaza.

"Woah." I said, looking up. A magnificent statue of Arceus was glaring down on me. I shuffled along and went inside. It was filled with people and their Pokémon.

_I guess this is where they buy their items for their journey? _I thought. _But that's stupid, there's still a war going on._

"Excuse me." Somebody said.

"Oh sorry," I said, moving aside. I looked at their retreating figure.

_This place sure looks busy..._

I walked around each store and climbed every level until I was sure I had walked every square foot of the complex. I bought something cheap from the bakery and settled myself on the top of the plaza. There, I was able to watch a water fountain spraying water. Soft music was playing in the background and the water was pumped accordingly. It resembled a dance, at least to me. I looked around the whole city. I could see the city's border from the top. I unwrapped the package and started to eat.

_So this is what peace feels like huh?_

I looked around and almost choked when I saw somebody. I managed to retain myself before confirming the identity of somebody. Sitting about ten feet of me was my co-worker, Jason. He had a neatly combed hair that was pulled back. He was with another female companion and, assuming, eating lunch.

I decided to stop staring and approach them. Jason glanced at me. He returned his attention to the person in front but looked again more dramatically. He blinked twice to confirm the person who was standing in front of him. The second time was more surprised than the first.

"You recognize me?" I asked.

"Well... not at first." He said. We remained silent for a moment.

"Can't tell if you're happy seeing or not." I joked.

"Well, of course, I'm happy seeing you," Jason said. "What's up with the hair though."

I shrugged. I glanced over at his coworker.

"Who's this?" I asked.

"Oh, my partner. She's recently new to the company so I'm just leading her and such. Right now just teaching her to get used to the environment." He said, eating his food. I glanced at her. She was rather angry looking, so I jerked my attention back to him.

"How's the company been?" I asked.

"It's going down recently." He said. "I'm still clinging on this job so... I figure I might have to switch companies."

"And your partner?" I asked.

"I dunno. She'll figure it out." He said. "How have you been?"

"Huh, just wandering around," I said.

"You would look like a homeless person if you were wandering around the city." He said, laughing. I gave him an unimpressed face.

"Alright, I have live with somebody right now. I'll give you that," I said.

"Damn, somebody took you in? What are you doing now?"

"Just looking around. Free time for myself I guess."

"Who took you in?" The girl asked. I flinched.

"Uh, just a couple of friends," I said, getting uncomfortable. Something in her eyes was bothering me. A tint of red and black flared behind her iris.

(Where are you?) Emily asked.

_The plaza. _I thought.

"Who though." She asked. Jason looked between us.

"Hey, it's not really nice to ask things like that." He said, trying to calm her down.

(I sense darkness around you. Are you safe?) Emily asked.

_Besides my friend and the girl. Oh wait, is it the girl?_

_(_Might be. Be careful.) Emily warned.

The girl huffed and looked away.

_This person isn't human... the eyes aren't normal. _I thought.

"Alright, I'll be going," I said, getting up. The girl wanted to stop me, but Jason cut in on time.

"Alright, I'll see you around." He said. I walked briskly away and down the plaza.

_I got away. The girl isn't human... I think... _I thought.

(I know, I could tell it was a dark type Pokémon.)

_Do you know what specifically?_

(Not really. Just be careful.)

I walked down the plaza and made my way down to the first floor. I walked out of the back exit and walked in the alley between the building.

_Crap, I think I got lost._

(Really? Just keep walking forward and turn to the left.)

I started walking but I heard a brush of air. I stopped and listened.

(What happened?) Emily asked.

_I think I heard something... _I thought. I listened silently. A couple of minutes past and I decided to hide behind the shadow. I heard another whoosh of air.

"I know you're there," I called. Behind a wall, the figure emerged. It was the girl again.

"Who are you?" I said, panicking. I slowly patted down my pocket, but I didn't have my gun on me.

"I'm surprised that you were able to look past my illusion." She said.

"What are you?" I asked. Her illusion melted and I faced a zoroark.

"Ah, should have known," I said. "Zoroarks possess illusionary tricks right?"

"Very little people see past my disguise." She said, baring her claws. "I know you are related to the Masked One."

"Masked one?"

"You pretend to be oblivious." She said, walking forward. I stepped back. "Tell me who it is and maybe I'll spare you from getting your limbs ripped off."

"No need to be so violent," I said. "Go on, sit down. Or do I need Jason to order you?"

That ticked her off. It howled and raced forward with its claws bared. I stepped back from the slash. She swung out her leg and I tripped. I rolled, barely avoiding a set of claws. I leaped back to my feet and ran. The zoroark summoned a black blob and hurled it. I ducked down to avoid the explosion. In the smoke, I couldn't see anything. I flinched as I avoided a deadly blow.

(Where are you?! I'm coming over right now!)

_I- _I was hit squarely in the chest and felt myself tear across the pavement floor. _I'm kind of in a situation right now!_

The smoke cleared and I stood up with difficulty.

"Interesting." The zoroark said, putting her paws on her hips. "I'm surprised that you could still stand after being struck. Maybe humans aren't as weak as I thought.

I coughed and examined my wound. A deep gash ran up my left side and upper forearm. I readied myself in a stance. The zoroark took out a radio.

"Hello? Yes, the suspect is here." The zoroark said, keeping its eye on me. "Some back up is pleasant to have to ensure target doesn't suffer further."

I heard wailing of a car in the distant.

"As you can see," the zoroark grinned, "the officials will be coming right now."

I heard tiny footsteps from the building. I wanted to keep quiet but the zoroark noticed. I flinched as Scott came out with blades extended. Kyle launched a Psycho Cut which didn't affect the zoroark. Scott and Kyle were busy fighting the zoroark.

"Come on!" Rachael said, holding me up. I frantically tried to get back on my feet.

The wailing of the cars arrived. Dozens of guards came out and trained their weapons on us. Emily looked frantically around before grabbing us.

"Elizabeth! Teleport us out of here!" Emily yelled.

"But the Or-"

"I command you to!" She yelled, summoning a powerful barrier that separated the guards and us. Elizabeth began to glow.

I struggled as I felt a flare of pain up my leg. I felt myself shrink as we started to teleport. The last thing I saw was Kyle and Scott leaping towards us. 

* * *

Somewhere far away...

I groaned as I got up. I faced the open blue sky that looked like sapphire. I got up. I felt a wheat stalk graze my arm. I was in the middle of a field. I got up and fell back down, due to the severe pain I felt.

_Emily? Kyle? _I thought.

_Where are you guys?! _I paused, taking in reality. _If this is a joke, this ain't funny. _No response. _Scott? Franjola? _I tried, in vain. _Elizabeth? Rachael? _There was no response.

All I remembered before we teleported was getting thrown into a void. I rose to my feet and struggled to walk. My head hurt like crazy.

(...)

"What?" I called out. I was getting some communication.

(...where?)

"I'm in the field!" I called out. I couldn't tell who's voice it was. I swung around and saw a tint of green. I was never happier in my life. I limped over to the lying figure.

It was Emily.

"Where are we?" She asked.

"I don't know. We are in a wheat field of some sort." I said.

"Your wounds look pretty bad." She said, standing up. She performed Heal Pulse, which instantly closed up the cuts and gashes. "Where are the others?"

"Others?" I said, looking around. "I didn't see anybody else. I was calling out their names."

"Huh? They aren't here?" Emily asked, standing up. "Elizabeth! Rachael!"

No reply.

"Well, I guess we really did get separated," Emily said.

"How?" I asked, confused.

"Teleporting long distance is strictly prohibited by law. It's difficult for a gardevoir to teleport long distances as well. Not only that, teleporting a group of people far away must have put a huge strain on Elizabeth." Emily explained.

"What are we going to do now?" I asked.

Emily grimaced, "I guess try to survive on our own."

We wandered in the field for a long time.

Emily suggested that we could live like nomads, but I didn't really like that idea. We already slept under the stars once and I hated sleeping on prickly soil.

"No way in the course of my life am I sleeping outside again." I firmly stated.

We decided to keep walking. One day, we came across a pasture of Pokémon. Then I saw a red barn.

"Let's check out the barn," I said.

"What if there are people in there?" Emily asked.

"Then we would have a place to stay," I said. Emily frowned but reluctantly agreed.

Turns out, it was just an old couple who lived there. They seemed really nice and offered us a place to stay in turn for some help with chores.

"My, that's a lovely gardevoir you have there." The lady commented. Emily rolled her eyes.

"Not really mine, but we are just traveling partners," I said.

"Alright, that's a wonderful thing too. I remember when I used to travel with Pokémon abroad. Here, I'll show you where you guys are staying." The lady said, leading us upstairs. We managed to get a small red room with a simple bed in the corner and a desk.

"You guys are free to do whatever you want today, tomorrow I'll show you around the barn." The lady said. With that, she left to do her old lady stuff.

"At least we don't have to sleep outside in the cold," I said.

"It's becoming spring soon, you need to relax," Emily said.

"Says the one who didn't want to come here first." I chided, sitting down on the wooden chair. Emily huffed and flopped down on the bed.

"I hope you're not planning on sleeping through the rest of the day," I commented.

"I might..." she mumbled. I sighed.

"Come on, we should probably just check around the Barn or something," I said, getting back up.

"I'm so tired though," Emily said.

"Shouldn't you be a role model?" I commented.

"It's hard being a leader," Emily said, mumbling into the mattress.

"I'm sure it is," I said.

"How would you know?" Emily asked, raising her head.

"Well... let's say that one time I was appointed as the leader for my group during work. I had to work with three other people. Let's say that two of the people I worked with weren't as bright or hardworking. I had to do the work myself when the deadline approach and I couldn't do anything. In the end, the two who didn't work received the most credit from the others." I explained.

"What happened to the third one?" Emily asked.

"Well, luckily that person helped me during the project as well," I said.

"Oh..." Emily said, hiding her face in the covers again.

"... How do you think we'll get back to the others?" I asked.

"I don't know to be honest. This has never happened." Emily said.

"How can you be so calm when something like this happens?" I asked curiously.

"I have to be," Emily said.

"What do you mean?"

"If I were to be nervous, what would that do to the whole group?" Emily asked. "I have to give them a vibe that I know what I'm doing, even when I don't know what to do."

"So half of the times you don't know what you're doing?" I chuckled.

"It's very rare at least," Emily mumbled.

"When you say 'rare', you mean all the time right?" I chided.

"Do you want to fight?" Emily said, semi-aggressively.

"No."

"You better." Emily huffed.

_Last time I fought you, I won. _I thought, staring out the window. I felt myself float up to the ceiling before crashing down to the floor.

"Emily!" I scolded. I got up from the floor and touched my newly forming bruises. "What if the lady comes up?"

"Oh oops, my bad," Emily said. I held my irritation in.

"If we are going to survive together, we better work together," I said.

"Yeah right," Emily said, haughtily.

"Okay. I'm sorry for saying a snarky comment." I said.

"..."

"No apologies for tossing me up to the ceiling?" I asked.

"No."

I sighed, "Come on, we should sleep in early so that we can start the morning early tomorrow." I looked around the room and couldn't find any cushions.

_ I guess I was sleeping on the floor then._

"Who said you had to sleep on the floor?" Emily asked.

"Uh, your scariness?" I asked. She moved over and got close to the wall, leaving me space to lie down.

"Wouldn't it be kind of weird?" I said, hesitantly. She gave me a look. "I mean, like sleeping together you know?"

"As long as you don't touch me, talk to me, or wake me up during the night, it's okay," she said, laying her head back down on the bed.

"Thank you." I said, laying down. I had my back facing towards her.

"If you get annoying, remember I'll push you on the floor," Emily mumbled.

"Okay," I said. I closed my eyes.

Morning

We started the day early. The sun hasn't even risen yet. We walked downstairs and ate the food that the couples prepared for us. (Bacon and eggs if you're curious.) The lady showed us around. I picked the eggs up from the nest while Emily surveyed and planned out where crops would be planted after winter was over.

The next day, the couples showed us how to milk a cow. Emily was downright disgusted and refused to do as instructed after the couple left. I was left to do the work myself. It didn't bother me too much because Emily kept me company. As I worked, I got to know Emily a little bit more.

She was born in the camp around the same month as my birthday. She was two years older than me. Her birthday was just before Christmas Eve. However, they don't celebrate any holidays that humans celebrate. She was enrolled at a school in a camp different than the one I was brought to. She was the best student there anyways. She learned English a month before the others did. By that time she was a kirlia. She was then put in another school that specialized in fighting; kind of like a military school. Because she was (not surprisingly) the best out of her class and school, she was noticed by the matriarch. As Scott and Franjola told me, that's when Elizabeth was a leader, so that's why the matriarch recruited her into the special force.

We later returned to the red barn to rest. A couple of days have passed. Emily and I got a little friendlier. We respected each other's backgrounds and tried to help each other.

One day I was sitting at my desk while Emily played around with a paper airplane that I taught her to fold.

"When do you suppose we should leave?" I asked.

"Soon. We have to make it to the nearest city." Emily said. I watched her throw a plane out the window. It slowly sifted through the air and glided far away. It was carried by the wind which boosted it up. It was as though the plane will never touch the ground.

"We have to tell the couples soon," I said.

Turns out "soon" was the next morning. Emily went ahead and alerted them about our departure. They thanked us for being so helpful. We cleared out the rooms and packed everything. The couples gave us a map and directed us towards the closest city; Fukui. We left the gravel path while they waved at us.

Night:

The night has risen and we were lying on a patch of grass. I laid my coat on the floor and sat on it. It was big enough for Emily to rest beside me.

"Do you think we will find the others in the next city?" I asked.

"I doubt it," Emily said.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Teleporting is a very risky task to perform in long-range. For all we know, they could be on the other side of the planet."

"..."

"Whatever, we make the best of what we have," Emily said, turning around.

"...Do you miss them?" I asked.

"Of course," Emily said.

"I do too," I whispered a couple of seconds after. I don't think Emily heard me.

The night passed and morning rose.

We traveled a couple of miles each day. Finally, exhausted, I began to see the city border.

"We are finally there," I said, wiping sweat from my forehead. I glanced over at Emily who seemed to be levitating with ease.

"Do you need any energy to levitate?" I asked.

"Not much," Emily said. "Why? Jealous?"

"Kinda," I said, huffing along the sidewalk. We approached the border of the city and walked in. Around was a lot of wanted signs on the billboard. There were dozens of criminals as well as Pokémon. I squinted closely as I saw a blurred image of myself on the board.

(We should be careful.) Emily told me, tapping my shoulder. (This is a hostile state.)

_Any signs of the others? _I asked. She paused to send a telepathic message. I glanced at her as she shook her head.

(We are on our own.)


	6. Dark Alleys of Fukui

A While Earlier

We stopped by a near by hotel and checked in. We got a room on the seventh floor. Inside was a large bed and some couches and tables with a TV.

"What's this?" Emily asked, picking up a controller.

"It's the controller," I said, sitting down.

"Like this?" She asked, pushing a red button.

"No, the green one," I said. She pressed it and the blank screen came to life.

"-We are still gathering evidence on the attack. It seems as though that the group consisted of three gallades, three gardevoirs, and an unknown human. We have not yet picked up enough evidence to prove that the human is even human. Our forces have trapped them on the building but the man left them in peace, under the order of the mayor. Later on, the same person was spotted on the plaza. Unmasked. Our specialist, a zoroark, radioed into the team. Immediately they came. However, they managed to teleport away. News reporters say... We were not yet able to get a photo-" Emily switched off the TV.

She sighed, "Ever since our attack I guess we attracted attention. Fucking human, you should have killed him on spot."

"But- wait, did you say not to kill him?"

"No. I never said you couldn't kill him."

"Oh wait, I'm mixing this up with the judge."

"... we are talking about two different people."

"Yeah, I executed my part correctly, I killed the judge, the target."

"Yeah, I'm talking about the mayor."

"Oh."

Emily shook her head. "Whatever, just know that we have to be more careful. You still have the mask?"

"Yeah." I said, taking it out.

"You know where you got this?" Emily said, taking it from me.

"Yeah, Captain Verily."

"You know where he got this?" Emily said, looking at me.

"The others said something about a guy who worked with a dark type to kill the psychic species," I said.

"Exactly. That guy was crazy." She said. "This mask looks really similar, but I don't think it's the direct copy of it. Maybe like a decoy mask. Speaking of which, what do you think of gardevoirs?"

I shrugged. "They're cool."

"So vague," Emily said, fixing her hair. "Doesn't matter, the point is, I don't care whether or not you are against or supporting our species. You are just going to do what you are told."

"Who said I agreed though?" I asked.

"No one asked. Plus, I can easily torture you into doing whatever I say anyway." Emily said, looking at her imaginary fingernails.

"I mean, I haven't outright said that I wouldn't do as told. But here's the deal, when this whole mess is over," I said, "once it's over, I'm living on my own. I'll walk my own path from now on."

"That's fine by me," Emily said. "I'm sure the matriarch would agree to your terms."

"I'm glad that we can negotiate," I said.

She stuck a tongue at me.

"You think we can look around the city tomorrow?" I asked.

"Sure, why?"

"I wanted to see if I can find myself a new weapon of some sort," I said. "Now that I've lost two of my weapons, I kind of want to get another one."

"Hm... I think there is an arms dealer around here." Emily said thoughtfully. "But, he would be suspicious..."

"About what?" I said, confused.

"Like, if there was another shootout, he would probably file into the government a man who bought a gun from his store," Emily said. "Not only that, he would have to take a picture and will require legal documents before he could sell you a gun."

"Then, I guess we won't go then," I mumbled.

"I mean, I don't really see the point of having a gun by you. After all, I can protect you." Emily said.

"I mean, what if we're both hurt and I can't do anything?"

"Gardevoirs are tougher than you think. I mean physically."

"I never said that you were weak," I said. She peered at me with one eye.

"Though, I was planning to look around the back alleys for information." She said.

"Alley?" I asked, confused.

"We might be able to find something to work with and get back to the others."

* * *

Present

That's how we ended up looking around. We turned the corner and walked down a dark path.

"Are you sure that we'll be safe?" I asked, eyeing a nearby gurrder.

(It's usually all fighting types that gather here.) Emily told me.

_Aren't you immune to fighting types?_

(I'm not 'immune' exactly, but their attacks are very ineffective)

I shivered.

(Stop being so weak, aren't you supposed to be a male.) Emily joked. I glanced at her. As we walked we past by a group of Pokémon. There were two gallade, a machop and a buff hitmonlee. One of the gallades looked at us unpleasantly.

"Hey there young missus." A gallade cat-called. I flinched. Emily looked uninterested and kept walking.

(Try your best to ignore them, I don't wanna risk a fight here unless they are really annoying.)

I walked on, but I sensed that they were following us.

"It's not very nice to ignore those who are talking to you." The machop said, laughing.

_Don't they know that you're a psychic type? _I said, walking a little faster. _Should they be avoiding you like the plague?_

(Look at how skinny I am. They tend to forget I'm a psychic type.) Emily said, glancing backward. We hit a dead-end. (Oh.)

_Oh? That's it?_

(Just stay out of my way.) Emily said, turning around.

"Have you finally noticed us?" The gallade said.

"Oh, sorry, I tend to overlook those who are inferior." Emily said, nonchalant.

"Inferior?" The gallade said. "Ah please, I beg your pardon."

"What do you want," Emily said.

"Well, I guess your body could have some uses." The gallade said, eyeing Emily.

_Ew. I think I just threw up in my mouth._

_"_Well, you can't have it until you fight for it." Emily said, holding a battle stance.

"Hear that?" The gallade said. "Careful with her, I don't want to be screwing a crippled one."

The machop rushed forward and attacked with a low kick. Emily foresaw the attack and buried her leg into it's face. The nose-bleeding machop flew backwards and hit the cement with a sickening crack. The rest rushed forward to attack. Emily pushed me out the way and blocked the hits with Protect. After the dome cleared, she unleashed a Psychic attack. The figures staggered. Taking advantage of their unbalance in their tempo, she dashed forward and grabbed the gallade by the neck. She threw the gallade into the brick walls. The others scrambled up but Emily caused gravity to drag them back down.

"You see this?" Emily addressed the others. Her dress glinted in the light with a tint of red. The others watched in fear as Emily took hold of the gallade. A terrible scream echoed from the gallade as his spine was ripped out. Emily tossed the membrane away and smashed his head into the wall.

"I'll give you a fair warning, make me mad, and this will be you." Emily taunted. She approached the cowering figures.

"Where's the government building?" She asked. The looked at each other in fear before shaking their heads.

"We don't know." They said.

Emily looked aside annoyed.

"Has there been any government activity here?"

The hitmonlee spoke. "Well... the... the humans were searching for a band of psychics and a human. They gave up their search a month ago." He said.

_A month? Somethings wrong. Were we-_

"I see. When did the incident occur in Sakura City?"

"About one and a half months ago." They said. Emily looked concerned.

"Is there anything you would like to tell us before you die?" She said, forming two shadow balls. They looked extremely afraid.

"Nothing?" She said, louder. They cowered in fear. Emily dispelled the energy and tugged on my arm.

"We're leaving." She said. I looked back at the Pokémon.

"What about them?" I asked.

"We don't need them." Emily said. "We have to find other sources."

We spend a whole day asking around. We managed to find it that we blacked out for two weeks. The search was initiated for two weeks before it was "stopped." Emily told me she doubts they would stop the search and that we should be extra careful. A couple of Pokémon's were suspicious of our identity, but Emily managed to persuade them otherwise. Most Pokémon did know something about the government. They had recently checked this town. They described that they had a cannon-like structure with them. It must be the anti-psychic weapon, I told Emily. She nodded gravely. We tried to ask about the rest of the group, but the Pokémon around couldn't tell us anything.

"I don't know where to start," Emily said, punching a window.

"Calm down. We just have to think." I said, closely following her.

"We couldn't find anything about their headquarters, their location, or the others..." she said. "I hope they are doing fine..."

"..."

We went back to the hotel and reached our room on the seventh floor.

"Maybe taking a hot bath could help." I said. She nodded tiredly. I sighed and went to fill the tub.

"It's ready," I said, feeling the water's temperature.

"Thank you." She said. I closed the door and lied on the bed.

"Do you have Ash's tablet," I asked.

"No." I heard. "I left it at his place."

"..."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Okay." I said, closing my eyes. I felt myself sink into the comfortable mattress. I kept thinking about the time gap between when we teleported and when we woke up. Is it possible we blacked out? Where were the others then?

"Hey Emily, is it natural for us to blackout?" I asked.

"Usually when we teleport, no." She asked.

"Is it possible that they were lying to us?" I asked.

"They weren't lying, at least from I could tell." She told me.

"Do you know why we blacked out then?" I asked.

"I... I have a couple of ideas, but..."

Even Emily didn't know why.


	7. Everstone

**Hey, so I felt bad about the 1770 word chapter 6, so I decided to upload another one during the weekend. **

**I hope you enjoy this one :)**

**As always, leave a review. I'm really curious what you guys think of the story development and the changes that happen. (****Especially**** this chapter ;) )**

We went around the city again to find out more things that happened. It has been a week since the first day we came. We asked all the Pokémon around the dark alleys since the Pokémon's all hid in the alley. This was a hostile city after all. No stray Pokémon's were allowed, only ones that are accompanied by a human were allowed.

"Why do I have to pretend to be 'your' gardevoir?" Emily complained. "It should be the opposite way around. Only humans are allowed if they are enslaved by a Pokémon." I chuckled while she huffed in annoyance.

One day, we spotted a poster that informed everybody about a search of new criminals that popped up. Some people were examining the poster. We had to push our way through the crowd before we that what was written. The poster was etched with a dark marker and had some mug shots stapled to them. It informed the people that they were holding a search to capture possible criminals in the city. I examined the rows of pictures. As my eyes peered next to a picture of a gallade, I saw a familiar smile.

_Oh, we are up there._

(That's kind of expected.) Emily said. I saw another picture of when I partially took off the mask.

_I really should have not taken off the mask. That was dumb. _I thought, pointing at parts of my hair parts of my eyes. Emily shrouded her shoulders.

"Aren't we technically criminals?" I asked, making sure nobody was around when we walked away.

"Yeah," Emily said. "We better make sure to be hidden in the city."

"Wouldn't it be better to just leave the city?" I asked. A guard walked past us. Emily hushed me before we were out of the guard's sight.

"They are around the borders, so we can't leave exactly. They will check who we are before we are allowed to leave." Emily said. I agreed.

It was a couple of days before the inspection. There were already patrol guards around.

"I bet they are already starting," Emily said.

Curiously enough, the hotel manager came up to our room.

(Stay relaxed.)

I opened the door and he presented a tray of food.

"Hello, thank you for staying at our residence, we hope that you are enjoying your stay." He said, giving us a smile. "Since criminal activities had escalated, we have been delivering food directly to our guests. Please pick whatever you want from this tray, don't be shy."

I hesitated. "Is there a catch?"

"Well, of course." He said. "All things will be totaled at the end of your stay when you pay."

"Oh, okay." I chuckled. I grabbed a plate of salad. Emily took her share of the portion on the tray.

"Is that a gardevoir?" He asked, curiously.

"Uh- no, actually, it is a zoroark as a gardevoir." I said. "Thanks for the food." He wanted to ask something else, but got the notion to take his leave.

I closed the door.

"That was too close." I sighed. "Can't we leave and reside at someone's house?"

"How many people do you know here?" She asked. I was about to say nobody when she cut me off. "Exactly, we just have to stay here until then and pray that they won't figure us out."

We ate in silence. I threw out the cheap styrofoam plate and went to bed.

I was swirled in the familiar darkness and light feeling.

In the darkness, I gently glided over the muddy water. I slowly saw a shining white light that was shining in the distance. There was a small island and a rock. A limestone rock. On the rock rested another round object. I quickened my pace and reached the object. It was a round orb. It was mixed with a green and white light. A gardevoirite. I turned around. _Is there nobody here?_ The orb began to float away. I stood there watching the floating orb disappear. I decided to leave the island and walked around. Suddenly, the calm black water began to ripple. The waves slowly become larger and more violent. I tried to float upwards but I couldn't. The water crashed over and caused me to submerge. Suddenly I couldn't breathe. I woke up in a jolt.

I woke up to a kirlia.

"Emily?" I asked, opening one eye. Emily woke up with a jolt.

"Kirlia." She said. "Kirlia?" She realized she was a kirlia in shock. I shook my head and confirmed Emily has indeed became a kirlia.

"You can't talk?" I asked, panicking. She shook her head.

"You can understand me?" She nodded her head.

"Oh no, no, no..." I mumbled. Emily looked at her own body in shock. She pulled her hair and adjusted it into a ponytail. She climbed into my small bag and gestured for me to pick her up.

"You want to leave the hotel?" I asked, adjusting her weight onto my bag. "You're kinda heavy."

"Kirlia." She said, hitting the back of my head.

"Ow." I said.

"Kirli- Kirlia." She said, hitting my head again.

"Okay okay, relax."

We both traveled down onto the streets. Emily guided me along the way. She told me to go into the alleys. We met some of the previous Pokémon's. Most of them couldn't help us. A male lopunny recommended us to visit a former Pokémon doctor. Emily gripped the back of my head. I smiled at her assuringly and followed the lopunny. He brought us to a destroyed building, which was much further into the alleys than I wanted to.

"He'll probably be in there sleeping or something." He said, leaving.

I looked up at the building. I took a deep breath and went inside.

The building was very dusty.

"Kir kirlia kirlia ." Emily mumbled.

"Yeah I know." I said, kind of getting what she said. I looked at the directory and traced my way to the room. I peered at the crack underneath the door, there was light from inside. I decided to knock.

"Coming, coming." A tired voice said. He opened the door. This person was rather old and tired. "It's rare that I get visits, so pardon my room."

"Yeah, totally no problem." I reassured.

"So, what's the problem? Health? Vision?" He asked, looking at me. I took off my backpack. Emily peered out of it.

"Is this my patient that you have brought?" The doctor said, pulling out a few forms.

"Yeah." I said.

"Oh... a kirlia. She looks healthy." He said, while I let her out. "What's wrong?"

"Well, here's the thing. She used to be a grown gardevoir, but she ate something and turned into a kirlia." I explained, trying my best to omit some details.

"Oh... what kind of food?" He asked.

"Human food?" I said.

"Hmm... if I remember correctly, human food is usually fine for species like gardevoirs. It's unadvised to be eaten in large quantity, but it's still okay." He said, thinking. "You said she used to be a gardevoir?"

"Yeah," I said. "And she de-evolved."

"Hm... my only guess is the ever-stone." He said.

"Ever-stone?" I asked.

"Are you a trainer?" He asked, peering at me.

"No." I said.

"Okay... it's more or less illegal to be a trainer anyways..." he said, thinking. "You said she ate something before?"

I nodded. Emily looked at me with an expression I couldn't understand.

"I guess the parts of the ever-stone was in it." He said, tapping his pen.

"What is a ever-stone?" I asked, to clarify some things.

"Kirlia-." Emily started. She realized that she couldn't speak and stopped.

"Sorry." The doctor said to Emily. "It seems as though your Pokémon knows more than you." We both chuckled. "Anyways, the ever-stone is a stone that reverses the old and causes the user to be young again."

"But why didn't she become a ralts?" I asked, vaguely knowing the evolution cycle of a gardevoir.

"I'm guessing that she was exposed to just enough to evolve back into a kirlia." He hypothesized. Emily looked disgruntled.

"Is there any way to reverse it?" I asked. I watched as he took a sample of Emily's hair and dipped it into a brown liquid before placing it gently into a machine. The machine whirled softly in the background as it scanned the genes.

"Well... no..." he said. "But, I could make something that would cleanse the presence of the stone. That could possibly evolve it back into a gardevoir."

I sighed in relief. The machine stopped and a slip of paper was printed out. The doctor took it and peered through the results. He frowned as he reached the middle of the paper.

"Speaking of which, this is a registered Pokémon right?" He said, examining Emily while she was trying to bite the doctor. "Because... I don't see a tagged gene."

"Oh... I Uh... found it in the wild..." I said. He gave me a unreadable expression.

"Okay... because... I heard around some news about the gardevoir colony causing trouble around a nearby town." He said, showing me a tablet. I read the news title and sat back into my chairs.

"Yeah, I have heard about it too..." I stuttered.

"Hmm... I can't say anything without firm evidence, but I think this may be a gardevoir from one of the colonies." He said.

_Crap, what do we do?_

"Oh..." I said, feinting to look surprised.

"I will help the gardevoir anyway. But before the effects kick into place you should release it before it fully evolves back into a gardevoir." He said, preparing a liquid. "You never know what they are thinking. They might attack you right after evolving."

"Alright, thanks a lot doctor." I said, watching him work.

"It's good that you have a caring nature. It's rare in the world nowadays." The doctor commented. Emily crawled over to me and I took her in my arms. Emily resisted but I held her firmly against my stomach as I watched the doctor.

"To be honest, I remember when I was a trainer." The doctor said. I perked up.

"You do?" I asked.

"I didn't really go on many adventures... mostly because my parents wanted me to pursue a medical degree." He said. "So I left my Pokémon to the medical hospital where they took care of them. Similar to an adoption center."

"What Pokémon was it?" I asked, curiously. Emily mumbled something and fidgeted in my arm.

"It was a eevee." He said, pouring a solution into a cup. "Anyways, have your gardevoir drink this." Emily took the cup and sniffed it. She made a grossed-out expression.

"Yeah I know, it smells bad. But taste it, it tastes pretty good according to what my other patient Pokémon's have told me." The docter said, cleaning out the cups. Emily looked at it once more and drank the solution. Once she finished, she put the cup down.

"When do you think she'll return back to normal?" I asked.

"In a day or something. Make sure she drinks lots of water and eats a lot. We need the minerals to dissolve normally." He said, disappearing into another room. He came back with a bag. He gave Emily a bag of beef jerky, which, to my surprise, she ate happily.

"I didn't know Pokémon's are carnivorous," I said, a little surprised.

"They can eat both human and Pokémon food. They are similar to humans as I said." He told me.

I heard a knock on the door.

"Excuse me." The doctor said as he left.

"Kirlia kir kirli kirlia." Emily said, throwing the wrapper away. Suddenly, she shot up with attention.

"What?" I asked, checking what's wrong.

"Kirlia!" She said, jumping off my lap. She started to tug on my pants. My mask fell from my pocket.

"What? What are you doing?" I asked, snatching the mask from the ground. Emily gestured for me to wear it. Uncertain, I put it on. Sure enough, I heard a rough voice.

"Where are they?" I heard.

"Give me a second." I heard the doctor say. The doctor briskly came back into the room.

"You need to leave. Now." He said, giving me a pack. "I knew you were the person from Sakura. Go. I'll hold them off."

"What?!" I said, standing up. "There's no way. We are just going to run for it."

A bang of light hit my eyes. I heard lots of voices. I felt myself get pushed up from the ground. For a brief moment, I saw a gardevoir but she disappeared into the cloud of whiteness.

_Good god..._

I struggled against the people with plated armor. I was propped against a wall. In a flash, I saw a gardevoir knocking out the guards.

_Did Emily evolve back already?_

"Come on." I heard as the gardevoir dragged me across the floor. She dragged me into a corner and crouched over me.

"Shh keep quiet." I heard when I squirmed. A dozen or so guards ran by. We proceeded to move outside. Once we made it outside we were met with more guards. Emily grabbed a pistol and expertly shot all of the surrounding guards. She laid me down onto the floor.

"Why are humans so weak?" She said, crouching down. She took off my mask and poured a bottle of water into both my eyes.

"Argh, it hurts," I complained, holding my eyes. Once I was able to see, I saw Emily leaning over me.

"Are you okay?" I heard her say. I nodded. I still had the sack that the doctor gave me.

"What happened to the doctor?" I asked. She looked down sadly.

"He was shot in the back when the flash bang was thrown." She said, cracking her knuckles.

"Out of all people, why are you sad about it?" I asked, suspiciously.

"What do- never mind." She said, looking away. A distant siren rang in the distance. I turned my head to see Emily hacking into the gates. The gates clicked and opened.

"How do you know how to bypass these systems?" I asked. She shrugged. We step through the gates and walked out.

"Kirlia!" I heard. I snapped my head towards the kirlia.

"Kir, kirlia, Kir lia. Kirlia?" She said, pointing towards the gardevoir. I looked back at the gardevoir.

_Huh? I thought Emily evolved into a gardevoir. _I thought, shuffling back.

"Wait. Hold on, you aren't Emily. Who are you?" I asked.

"Kirlia!" Emily exclaimed. A distant siren blared.

"There isn't time to explain." She said, holding out a hand. "We have to go."


	8. A New Life

**Yo, hi, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night, good day :)**

**Sry for updates on another book, but THAP (The other book) will be updated in a couple of weeks from now. I'm experiencing a writer's block and nothing sounds good. Sorry :(**

**Anyways, enjoy this chapter.**

**As always, review and comment on how you think this book is coming along. Any advice is welcomed :)**

We ran between buildings to evade the police and other officials that were chasing us. We were making our way downtown where the border entrance is. I was carrying Emily on my back as we ran. We had to occasionally hide in buildings because we encountered armored troops.

"My section should be invading the city right now." The unknown gardevoir said.

"What section?" I asked, limping along.

"Kirlia!" Emily said, pulling on my hair.

"Ow! Chill out, will you?" I said, feeling pain. This prompted her to pull on my hair again.

"We are heading towards the border. Expect heavy resistance." the gardevoir said. "Just stick close to me as well."

I looked at the gardevoir. She seemed to be running with incredible ease, compared to when Emily was a gardevoir.

_I don't think those calves are made for running. _I thought as I glanced at her 'feet'. _I wonder... _

We halted to a stop at a building. The gardevoir peered over the corner and pulled out a radio. We had made our way downtown and there were stationed troops at the border.

"Objective secured. I need some help at the border. Retreat after we have the target extracted from the site safety." The gardevoir mumbled. "Trigger the C4s."

I heard a massive explosion, followed by some yelling.

"Follow me!" The gardevoir yelled as we plunged through the smoke. I started to cough as I inhaled the dust particles.

"Kir kirlia!" Emily urged. I kept running.

When we left the border, a truck was waiting for us. I leaped into the passenger seat and shut the door. The gardevoir ran the engine and we pulled away from the city.

* * *

"What will happen to the others?" I asked.

"I gave orders to retreat, they will be fine." It said, giving me a wink. "After all, they are the best fighters we have."

Emily crawled out of my backpack and sat in the back.

"So, can I know where you are taking us?" I asked.

"Well, we are taking you guys to a city where it is pro-Pokémon's. It's a much smaller city compared to the cities around here." It explained, focusing on the road. "It's a small community."

"And what's the reason behind all this?" I asked.

"Well, we are trying to save as much of our kind as possible. Once words spread that Fukui was going to be purged, we sent our forces in." It explained. "Luckily I also encountered you guys when visiting the doctor,"

"How will I be able to trust you guys?" I asked.

"Easy, you'll just have to." The gardevoir said. The truck hummed as we raced across the open plains at 90 miles per hour. I glanced over at the gardevoir who was steering the wheel. Her eyes seemed content and at ease. They also seemed rather foreign as well. I decided to ask something that was on my mind.

"Are you part of the gardevoirs colony?" I asked bluntly. The gardevoir looked at me weirdly. "Like the colony, Emily is from."

"For a human, you do have lots of questions." It commented.

"I mean... you're... eyes are rather different," I said, recalling the same effect I saw from my co-worker's zoroark. The gardevoir looked at me mildly surprised, which then turned into a grin.

"I supposed you would know one way or another. " The gardevoir said with a smile. "It would be pointless to continue an illusion that had been revealed."

The disguise wore off and the gardevoir became a zoroark. The zoroark was rather fit. She wore a shirt that was cut off halfway, revealing quite a lot of muscles. Her hair was tied back neatly into a ponytail with a blue orb attached to the bottom. She was wearing very short pants and a tank top. I noticed that she had certain... assets, to which I blushed and looked away.

"What?" The zoroark said, smirking.

"Nothing," I said. Emily looked at me unimpressed.

"Kirlia." She said, huffing.

"Alright! I'm sorry I didn't know Pokémon's had boobs." I said, leaning out the window.

"Relax kiddo, I'm just messing with you. No need to take anything personally." The zoroark said, laughing. "But no, I'm not from a gardevoir colony."

"Alright Missus," I grumbled.

"My name is Amelia, just saying." She said, nonchalant.

The ride to wherever the hell she is taking us was rather awkward. Emily fell asleep in the back, so the conversations were usually between us two. I later learned that Amelia was also yet another fighter, similar to Emily. Amelia specialized in physical training and has excellent marksmanship in primarily pistols and rifles.

"Say, how did you end up with her?" She asked.

"Uhh... I was living in the wild before they found me." I said.

"In the wild?"

"I was exiled from my city," I said.

"How come?" She asked.

"Bullshit reason. I was framed." I said, a little bitterly.

"That's rather unfortunate." She said. "Have you ever worked in the army?"

"Yeah, I was recruited when I was in college," I said. "Why?"

"I need to know my soldiers a little before we deploy them." She said, shrugging. "So you do have a little training experience,"

"A little," I said. "Wait, who said I was going to fight for you guys."

She looked at me curiously. "Let me ask you a question: what are you fighting for?"

That question stumped me.

_What is my purpose?_

"I'm just helping Emily accomplish her goals..." I said.

"Then what are her goals?" She asked.

"To... make cities neutral and killing hostile government officials," I said.

"So, you're merely just a pawn that the gardevoirs are using." She concluded.

I bit my tongue at the sudden realization. I glanced at Emily at the rear camera to see her peacefully sleeping.

"Yeah, so what?" I said. She shrugged again.

"Hmph, you are an interesting human after all," Amelia said, grinning again. "They chose their targets well."

"What are you trying to say?" I asked, a little agitated.

"Nothing, I was just trying to test your personalities a little." She said. "I was trying to say that we are fighting for the same goal; to bargain for better toleration against us. Why shouldn't you work with us when we are fighting for the same thing?"

"..."

"It would, after all, be much more efficient no?" She said. "We could use people like you."

I shrugged. "I don't know. I don't really care either. I'll ask Emily this whole thing. If she agrees then I'll agree as well."

"Are you guys mates?" She asked.

"What? No." I said, surprised.

"You guys sure do seem like it," Amelia said. "Anyways, we are trying to get rid of the racists as well. We'll have to corroborate if we want to execute this whole mission successfully."

I sighed. "Alright, I guess I'll work with you guys. I don't know if Emily will agree though. That will be between you guys if she doesn't,"

Amelia nodded. "Wonderful, glad we can negotiate."

I leaned back into my chair and looked out the window.

"Depressed?" Amelia asked, glancing at me.

"No... not really," I said, leaning on my arm. "Just shit happens you know?"

"I get you," Amelia said. "You just have to keep looking forward and not look back,"

"Easier said than done," I snorted.

"You're only saying that because you've never done it," Amelia said. I looked at her strangely.

"You know... you seem like an interesting zoroark," I said.

"Why's that?" Amelia asked, glancing at me.

"No particular reason. It's just the way you think, that's all," I said. "It's almost like... you are wise enough to be three hundred years old,"

She chuckled lightly. "We zoroarks live just a couple of years longer than humans. Perhaps this may have an impact on your thinking."

"Yeah right, you're probably younger than me," I said, poking my tongue at her.

"Yeah, sure," she said, looking ahead. I saw a small looking border appear over the horizon.

As we got closer to the border, I began to see more activity that went on inside. It seemed like a very militaristic place. Amelia pulled up into a curb and two flygons approached us.

"Amelia here with two guests." She said. One of the flygons nodded and pulled down the border. "Did the team make it back yet?"

"No, not yet, I think they be back in a couple of hours. Meeting?"

"Uh... yeah, if you can herd them into the building that would be great," Amelia said, parking into space. "Thanks, sweetie."

"No problem." The flygon said, leaving. I turned around and shook Emily awake.

"Kirlia?" She asked, swatting my hand away.

"Yeah, we are here. Wake up." I pleaded when Emily didn't respond. I sighed and opened the sack. She climbed in and mumbled something that I couldn't hear.

"All ready?" Amelia asked. I gave her a thumbs up and adjusted the weight of the backpack. I looked around.

"Welcome to Jargon." She said, showing me around. "We are a military state that is 95 percent Pokémon and 5 percent human."

"95 percent Pokémon?" I asked.

"Yep, we keep the city safe from any hostile states," Amelia said.

"Hey, Amelia!" I heard a pair of machamps said. Amelia waved back at them.

"You seem very friendly with everybody here," I said.

"Especially the males." She winked. I bit back a laugh. "I'll show you where you guys are staying."

We walked around the block and arrived to a glass-like building.

"Our headquarters houses important figures and other leaders." She said, opening a door for me. I looked around the massive structure. We took an elevator upstairs to the second floor. She tapped a card against the door and I heard a click. The door swung open.

"Here's a copy of the key." She said, handing me a black card between her claws. "Don't lose it."

"I won't," I said.

"It's a hundred dollars for replacement." She said.

"What the f-"

"I'm just kidding," Amelia said. "Be at the conference room in 10 minutes. We'll introduce you to everybody. Don't be late."

"Cool," I said. Amelia left.

"Kirlia?" I heard. Emily jumped out of my bag and onto the floor. "Kirlia Kir lia Kirlia Kirlia."

"I have no clue what you're saying," I said, opening the blinds. The place we were at oversaw the border and part of the ocean.

_It's so beautiful._

"Kirlia," Emily said, taking beef jerky from my bag.

"Your gonna get fat if you keep eating so much," I commented. Emily threw a piece at me.

"Kirlia." She huffed.

"Try to keep the room clean please," I begged. "I don't want this place to be dirty. We have to go to a conference in a couple of minutes."

"Kirlia?" She asked.

"Yeah, there is gonna be the other leaders and staff," I said.

"Kirlia." She said, crossing her arms.

"Come on, it's just gonna be Amelia and others," I said.

"Kirlia?"

"Amelia, The zoroark," I explained. She shook her head.

"I'll get you a cookie," I said, getting desperate. She nodded.

_What the..._

"Alright, let's go," I said.

Emily stretched and followed me. We walked down the corridor and heard some mumbling. I turned the corner to see a pacing gallade.

"Um, excuse me? You know where the conference place is?" I asked. It looked up with a surprise.

"Oh, it's around the corner." It said, pointing.

"Thanks," I said. We walk down into the direction it pointed. Pretty soon we approached two black doors. Through the crack, I saw some people have already arrived.

"Kirlia," Emily said, pushing both doors open. We walked into the room. Most people gave us a brief glance to return their attention to the person they were talking to.

"Hello!" I heard Amelia's voice. "I see you guys have come already. If you want to sit anywhere." She told us. "Alright guys, we have our guests here."

Everybody turned their attention to us. A couple of them looked bored but everybody else had a neutral facial expression.

"This is hm... let it be code-name Ronan," Amelia said, gesturing to me. _Ronan? _"That is Emily. These will be your co-workers from now." They all started to applaud and welcome us.

"Have we heard back from the rest?" Amelia asked.

"Yeah, they are on their way back." A Scyther said. Amelia nodded. "Shall we begin?"

I settled myself down with Emily in the corner of the room.

_Well, this is crazy awkward._

"Jay, can you pull up the cameras?" Amelia asked. A lucario nodded and typed something into the computer. An image of the city flickered on the screen. The city was partly destroyed.

"Here." Amelia gestured at the damage government building. "We sent our people into the facility. We almost got our target get before they got away." An image of a helicopter was shown. "They got away on a heli. Anybody put out a tracker?"

"My men said that they threw a charge on the underbelly of the vehicle." The lucario said.

"Were they able to take it down?" Amelia asked. The lucario shook its head.

"The charge only caused minimal damage to the helicopter. It wasn't enough to take it down." It explained.

"Shit... we have a runaway then. Have the intelligence team track him down." Amelia ordered. "My guess is that he went back to Sakura."

The lucario nodded and typed something down.

"We have started to attack minor states. What we are doing, I explained to you a couple of days ago, is island hopping. The humans used that tactic in several of their wars. We attack weaker states before going for the main." Amelia explained. "Right now, we still have critical information that is missing about their reinforcement."

"We are researching other cities like Harakin and Huji." A flygon said.

"And also an information breach at Hojins." A hitmonchan said.

"What?!" Amelia asked.

"We have an opportunity at Hojins. They messed up their security-"

"What happened to Hargon?"

"We can't focus on these small things. We have an intelligence breach at Hojins. We have to send a team there." Amelia snarled with a surprising amount of intimidation. "We need to assemble a team to deploy at Hojins, by tonight!"

A couple of the Pokémon's looked uncomfortable.

"Uh madam?" A gallade said.

"What?" Amelia asked.

"We have a problem with the poles again. The intelligence team reported a package that predicted to be flying over the area."

"From the hostile?"

"Yeah. It may be a weapon of some sort." The gallade said.

"Alright, when is this?" Amelia said, noting something down on a tablet.

"Exactly eighty-five hours from now." The gallade reported.

"Alright, we can send three teams of flygons there. We'll have to have an anti-aircraft in place." Amelia said.

"We are all in position for intercepting." The gallade said.

"Good good. For now, we have to focus on Hojins. Full stealth. I want a minimum of three zoroarks to be at the site." Amelia said.

"We can put Slash, Kildred, and Fang in." A flygon suggested.

"Yes, that's good," Amelia said. "Ronin will be leading."

_What?_

"Sorry, what?" I asked. A couple of Pokémon's shifted uneasily.

"You heard that right little pup, I'm sending you in," Amelia said, looking at me. "Have Emily beside you for extra precautions. Got it?"

"Woah wa-"

"Somebody bring them to the armory?" Amelia said, looking around the room.

"I can go with them." A gallade said.

"Excellent. Kohl, can you map out their route?" Amelia said, turning to a medicham.

"Follow me please." The gallade said. I think it was the same gallade from before. Emily and I followed him outside.

"I'm Jayden, nice to meet you." He said. I shook his hand. "Where did you come from?"

"Sakura," I said. "You?"

"Freedmen." He said. "You fight a lot?"

"No, not really, why?" I asked.

"No fighting experience?" He asked, mildly surprised.

"I mean, I can fend for my life if I have to." I clarified.

"How about your kirlia there?" He asked. Emily looked up, extremely annoyed. "How did she manage?"

"She used to be a gardevoir but got poisoned by an everstone." I explained.

"Oh... did she check it out?" He asked.

"Yeah, a doctor had a solution for her to dissolve the stone," I said. He nodded.

"She'll probably evolve back in a day or something." He predicted.

"Yeah, that's what the doctor said."

"How did you guys end up here?" He asked, curiously.

"Oh, in the middle of the examination, the guards showed up. Amelia saved us from the ambush." I explained.

"I figured. We were trying to evacuate potential fights that we could use in the area." Jayden said. "You know anything about the corpse of the gallade?"

"Corpse?" I asked,

"Yeah, we found a body do a gallade around the alley. I think there was a fight there or something. I was just asking because you guys were in the area at that time." Jayden said

"Oh, that was Emily's doing," I said. He looked surprised.

"Oh, your gardevoir must be really strong." He commented.

"Kirlia. Kirlia Kir lia Kirlia." Emily said.

"Sorry?" He said.

"Kirlia. Kirlia Kir lia Kirlia." She said, with more emphasis.

"I don't really understand, but I understand a little," Jayden told me.

"Kirlia..." she mumbled.

"What did she say?" I asked.

"Something about beating something up and a curse word. I don't know." he shrugged. I chuckled. Emily huffed in annoyance.

We finally arrived at the armory.

"Yo, what's good?" I heard a Charizard say.

_Holy crap._

"All good," Jayden said, fist-bumping him. "I've brought a friend along, Codename Ronin."

"Sick." The dragon said, nodding. "What have you come for?"

"Madam called for a stealth team, so probably quiet weapons," Jayden said, looking around. I looked around. There were MP5s, pistols, subs, and rifles. Several hand cannons caught my eye and other sniper rifles. I was hoping to get my hands on a sniper rifle soon to replace the PGM Hecate Sniper Rifle.

"Glock 17 or 18?" He said, putting two pistols onto the counter, "17 is semi and 18 is auto or semi."

"Hmm..." I said, unsure what to pick. Both handguns looked really nice.

"How about this one?" Jayden said, tapping against a glass pane. The glass box housed a Tec-9.

"I think the recoil will be too much for a stealth mission." The charizard said.

"Would it be though?" Jayden asked.

"Can I take a look at that?" I asked, pointing at a black orange handgun.

"The 5-7?" He asked, placing it on the counter. I held it in my hand. It was perfect between weight and balance. "If you like it, I'll put an osprey on it."

"Alright," I said. He attached a box-looking suppressor and added a red dot. He placed it back onto the counter. I picked it up and aimed it. It definitely felt really nice.

"Okay, a hundred fifty please." He said. I looked up with a surprised expression.

"But-"

"I'm just joking. I love messing with you guys. We provide for the soldiers." He said, putting the 5-7 into a leather cover. "Take care of it. Come back if you want to trade it for something else."

"Let's go." Jayden said. We followed him back into the building.

"The meeting is over, you probably want to rest before you go. You'll be leaving at 11 something. You should be meeting at the border" He said. "I'll see you around."

With that, he left.

"That was weird," I told Emily.

"Kirlia," Emily muttered.

I tapped the card against our door and it swung open. I fell down onto the bed and breathed out in content.

"Kirlia kir kirlia lia kir." Emily said, disappearing into the bathroom to take a shower. I nuzzled my face into the mattress.

_Ahh, the covers are so soft._

I fell asleep into oblivion.


	9. Heist

**Hey, hi, yeah, it's me, resurrected. **

**Yeah, I went on hiatus for like... a day. *cough* 2 months.**

**I'm sorry, high key. Like, I've been going through so much stuff, it's not even funny. My grades being one, my significant other being another. Like, although I'm not going to go into detail here, I hope you guys understand I've been going through some pretty poopy times here.**

**Also what contributed to the lack of publishing is that... yeah I'm starting two other books. **

**Yeah. Yep. Mhm. I won't publish them until I get this book and Time Heals All Pain done.**

**For those who are questioning wtf happened to that book, I really haven't found the motivation to do that, so like... idk... it's going to take a while. I feel like the plot has gone pretty... off course? I really should have planned it better, I feel like, and also I need more time. **

**But yeah, hopefully, you enjoy this chapter too. But seriously, I love the support I'm getting here.**

**Truly sorry for being inactive for nearly a month. **

**Yeah.**

**I guess I won't be seeing you guys again until next year! **

**Lmao jk, idk. It might be true, we'll see. **

Emily woke me up after a nap.

"Argh," I grumbled as I woke up from my peaceful napping.

"Kirlia," Emily said, giving me my pistol.

"Thanks," I said. I took my coat off and patted it down to fluff out the dust.

"Kirlia Kir, lia, Kirlia Kir." Emily said.

"Yeah, I should probably clean my clothes really soon," I said, partly understanding what Emily was telling me.

We left the complex and made our way down to the first floor. By then, the city was under the veil of darkness and the lamps were turned on, illuminating a soft and gentle stream of light.

We both made our way back to the border. In the distance, we saw three figures.

"Ronin?" One of the zoroarks asked.

"Yeah, that's me," I said. _I guess..._

"Excellent. I heard that you'll be leading us?" They said, looking expectant.

"That's what I heard from Amelia as well," I said. They looked at one another.

"What have you been planning then." One of the zoroarks asked.

"You got a tablet or map I can use?" I asked. One of the zoroarks handed me a holographic screen. _Oh woah, that's sick._

"Alright," I said, after a moment of examining the building. "We are gonna start here. We need two groups positioned at the roof and the front entrance. Three people are going to get into the building through the top. The group of three will go through the front. We'll have fake copies of the ID to gain access to the building. We'll then rendezvous at the data storage room. I don't want any confirmed kills unless it's necessary."

One of the zoroarks nodded.

"Sounds good." He said. "We'll be communicating by radio that is encrypted to keep under security detection."

"Good," I said. _Perhaps this is like a test... I think this guy is truly in charge._

"Kildred and Fang, you guys will enter through the front. I'll go with the rookies." He said, glancing at me. "If anything goes wrong, use your illusion effect to distract them. We'll get the information we need to we'll have to run for it."

"Sounds good," I said.

"We'll be taking a helicopter," Slash said, leading us. We walked through the border and saw the flygons.

"Good luck. Open the gates!" It called.

There was an awaiting helicopter that was humming on neutral standby. On the pilot seat, was a female driver. A human was going to fly us in.

"Eh? A human?" The female driver said. "Since when you guys had humans on a mission?"

"Seems like a promising one," Slash said.

"That's good. You guys buckled in? Helmets on, so you guys don't become deaf." She said, checking the signals and lights.

I strapped on a helmet and heard a radio static.

"You guys all clear?" I heard the pilot say. Slash gave a thumbs up. I heard the blades pick up speed before we flew into the night air.

"Nightingale, are you airborne?" I heard a radio call.

"In air, clear signals." I heard the pilot replied.

"Alright, good luck. Make it home safe. Over."

I stayed the majority silent as we glided over mountains and trees.

"I'm going to have to drop you off a little farther from the destination, rather than at it. They are extremely alert and increased their securities." The pilot said. "There's going to be an awaiting crew for extraction up north of the building. It's best that you keep everything quiet."

"Roger that," Slash said. "Somebody has the mute? We have to break through the ceiling."

"I have it," Kildred said. Slash nodded.

"Have your kirlia discourage the humans from coming to us." Slash said. "If they come over by suspicion warn us, Ronin." I nodded.

"We have to avoid killing if possible right?" Kildred said.

"Yep. If one person drops out, the whole building will be on lockdown, which we don't want." He said. We flew in silently. I pulled out my pistol and checked the magazine. It was full.

"There are extra clips," Slash said, opening a cabinet. He tossed me five extra magazines. "Use them sparingly." I gave him a thumbs up.

"Hey you two, illusions," Slash said. The two zoroarks transformed into two men with trimmed beards. One was blonde, the other had black hair. They were both in suits with sunglasses. Slash nodded in satisfaction.

"Have your kirlia track all the people in the building," Slash ordered. Emily huffed into the mic.

_Oh god, please don't embarrass me here. _I prayed.

"Alright. We reach the building in five minutes. Slash, if you can put on the illusion." The female pilot said, turning on some switches. "The mute is on. You're free to take off the helmets." I followed the others and took off my helmet.

I felt my ear quiver a little at the deathly silence. The high trees cleared and we flew over the building. I checked the monitors. None of the people had noticed us in the air, which meant Slash's illusion was working.

Slash poked me in the arm and pointed at the rope that he threw down. I watched as the rope reached the top of the building. I loaded my 5-7 and got up from the seat.

With one arm and leg around the coarse rope, I slid down. I grimace at the friction that made my hands bleed.

I reached the ground and looked up. All I could see was the dark sky as if the helicopter never existed.

A few moments later, I saw Emily get off. I saw her mouth say something but I couldn't hear her. All the zoroarks jumped off. Slash followed us and the other two leap away. Slash was carrying a large cylinder container. We both carried both sides and planted it on the ceiling. Once we let go of the heavy object, Slash took out a smaller charge and planted it against the floor. Slash held up three claws and removed the one by one. He activated the smaller charge, resulting in an audible pop. Silence filled the air once again. He and I twisted the handle on the machine that we planted. I felt the ceiling tremble a little as the machine dug into the mortar.

We lifted the contraption away and it exposed a perfect hole into the building. Slash leaped into the building. I followed him. I caught Emily as she jumped down. Slash looked around and radioed something to headquarters. By that time, the silence was wearing off. Slash mentioned me to follow him. We ran through the hallway and had to cut right.

"We have to get to the basement. Shit, why did we go through the top." He cursed. We ran to an elevator. Slash took his claws and pried the doors apart, exposing an elevator shaft. He jumped into the shaft and slid down. I watched as he expertly grabbed onto the rope and jumped off to an open door. I followed him and slid down. The rope rubbed raw against my wound. Emily was in my backpack mumbling something, but I was too in pain to notice.

"Here!" Slash yelped. I jumped off and missed the door. But I managed to get a hand on the ledge. I glanced down the floor of the elevator. The elevator was heading towards me.

"Shit!" He said, grabbing onto my arms. He lifted me up into the door as the elevator passed.

"Fuck that was too close." He said. We passed through the entrance and left the elevator shaft.

"Where's the signal?" Slash asked.

"What?"

"It's upfront." The radio chattered.

"Kirlia, Kirly Kirlia Kir." Emily said.

"There are reinforcements up front." He mumbled. He pulled us into a corner. The armed men passed us without noticing the three people huddling the wall.

"Good good," Slash mumbled. We stealthily moved across the corridor. "Kildred and Fang most likely heading towards the rendezvous point. We should probably check the data room first."

"Won't there be guards?" I asked. He nodded.

"We can stun them first. I have a move that will take care of it." He said. I gave him a thumbs up and we continued to move down the hall.

"Keep in mind that they are communicating constantly, to make sure everybody is in check. If somebody drops out, we are all goners." I noticed.

"It shouldn't matter for the breach of the data room though," Slash whispered. We got closer to a large room which housed a bunch of machinery and computer

"Here, mark the man in front. Two guards and three workers." He said. "I'm going to make an illusion, you guys quickly move in. This will only last us a couple of seconds."

As he said that, he created a white mist that spread over the door. The mist created an illusion of a closed door, but in reality, Slash pushed us right through it. The guards didn't notice anything. He then created a disturbance creating noise outside of the room. The two guards looked up and left to investigate the noise.

Slash quickly dropped the three workers and they fell face first onto their table.

"Don't worry, they are just having a nap." Slash whispered. I walked over to one of the computers and turned it on.

"Get the chip and the data. I'll stand guard." He said. I acknowledged his order and tried to get past the security passes of the computer. One question popped up and had a timer of thirty seconds.

"Passcode?" I said. Emily looked over.

"Wait, what?" Slash said. I showed him. His eyes narrowed. The timer started to reach the tens and we still haven't cracked it.

"Try 'abc123'" He said. I typed it in and an alarm sounded. We all jolted alert and looked out the door. We heard stomping coming towards our direction.

"You know what?" Slash said.

"What?" I asked.

"We're going in. Let's get our hands bloody." He said, baring his claws.

Multiple armed men barged into the room and started to fire their assault rifles.

I took my 5-7 from the holster and hid under the table. Slash howled and unleashed a black mist that covered everywhere. I couldn't see anything in the murky environment.

"Kirlia!" Emily said, summoning a white orb (Flash).

"Thanks," I said, regaining about five feet of vision. I followed into the mess. I saw Slash take his claws against somebody's face. Heavy gore splattered everywhere.

_Oi! What happened to no confirmed kills? _I mentally hollered.

I shot somebody in front of me as I pushed ahead out the door. A whiz of bullets flew by. Around me were people yelling orders and screaming.

_Like hell. _I thought as I charged ahead.

"Ronin! Get the decoding chip and head to the computer upfront. It has access to all of the other computers!" I heard Kildred yell. Emily caught a flash drive. "Hurry!"

"Kirlia," Emily said, handing me the device. I searched around the bloody room as I found a screen.

"Kirlia!" Emily warned.

I felt myself get knocked to the ground. Emily launched Psychic at the guard. He was knocked off balance.

I took the time to deliver two rounds into his torso. He grunted and grabbed his pistol. I shot his arm in shock as he crumbled. I scrambled onto my feet and dropped the USB.

"Fuck!" I cursed. I couldn't hold the USB steady. Fang ran past me, cutting somebody in half.

At last, I plugged the USB to the monitor. A small access window popped up. I typed something onto the computer and got my access denied.

"They won't let me into the system!" I yelled.

"I'll- fuck, this. I'll be with you!" I heard. I scrambled and trying to find an entry point into the files. Emily jumped onto the computer and was on the look-out.

"Their servers are coming back up," I warned. I pressed the file and compressed it. A red window flew up.

"Uh... access denied? Officials are warned? Oh... fuck!" I cursed. "They're on their way!"

"We'll hold them off! Keep trying!" Fang yelled. The two zoroarks ran outside the room. Emily came back with my radio and handed it to me.

"I need some help getting into the file," I said into the radio.

"Gaining access?" I heard the person on the other side.

"Yeah," I said.

"What kind of file?" They asked.

"I don't know!" I said, scanning the properties.

"Here, I'm sending over an anonymous IP. I have your current address. The new address should allow access." They said. A pop-up screen appeared. I watched as IP changed and the encryption system changed. The person was trying to put a fake identity into the device. The device was pretending to be an official user. This, hypothetically, will let us view the file and get through the encrypted data.

"Try now." I heard. I plugged the device back in again and tried to access the file. The file opened up revealing lots of documents and data. As I scanned the papers, there was information about wars, secret messages, and other military attacks from hostile states. I uploaded them to the small chip with success. The loading process started.

_Estimated time... 10 minutes... _I thought. A large explosion hit outside and the room shook.

"Kirlia!" Emily yelled, throwing my 5-7 at me. I got back up from the ground.

I caught it with one hand and sprinted outside. I reached a window that over-looked the fighting that was on the first floor. Two broken parts in the glasses showed that Slash and Kildred jumped through the dense glass pane.

_What's Fang doing? _I thought as I aimed my pistol. I fired nine rounds and five of them passed through a guards torso. I continued to fire until one of the soldiers noticed me. I leaped away from the bridge as a barrage of bullets scattered around the area. Emily tossed me a full magazine. I caught it and refilled the 5-7. I peeked over the corner and a bullet grazed over my shoulder.

"Oh fuck." I flinched. I hide behind the corner as I felt the sting come into place. I raised my gun and fired blindly. I watched as dozens of soldiers surrounded Slash. He looked tired from all the fighting that he did. Kildred leaped into the circle and cast a Dark-type move which caused all the humans to fall. Slash nodded at Kildred and resumed to cut down anybody that stood in their way.

Fang rushed into the room that was to the right of me.

"Hold the building for five minutes." He said, panting. He took up the radio. "We have the extraction team... in five... minutes."

I heard a crash and two dozens soldiers came into the building. They busted their way through the ceiling and were hanging on ropes to get down. I fired my pistol and hit three of them. They fell limply onto the floor like a rag doll. Fang and I started to intercept the incoming soldiers.

"Fuck, stay here. I'm going in." He said, leaping over the wall. I glanced at somebody in the corner holding a large looking rifle.

"Look out!" I yelled as the person fired.

_It's the anti-Pokemon rifle! _

Fang looked back and only had time to use the move Protect. The laser phased through the shield. Luckily, he was able to dodge in time.

I quickly shot the person holding the rifle. I had to take down anybody who tried to grab the rifle. An explosion hit the ceiling, sending glass everywhere.

A helicopter appeared and threw down coils of ropes. I finished taking down a guy before running down the stairs with Emily close behind.

Slash kept everybody within distance outside the helicopter. Two humans on the helicopter fired against the guards on the ground. I grabbed onto the ropes and helped Emily get into the aircraft.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kildred getting shot.

_Oh fuck, _I thought angrily, shooting with one arm.

"Everybody get on!" The pilot said, eyeing an incoming truck. Slash and Fang abandoned the ground and leaped into the aircraft.

"Kildred!" Fang yelled as we lifted into the air. "Fuck! Stop we left one behind!"

"The truck has an anti!" The pilot yelled, pushing the throttle up. "We have to leave!" As we climbed altitude, I took one look at Kildred and jumped down.

"Ronin! What the-?" Fang yelled.

He too leaped down in the brash seconds that passed.

The helicopter raced out the building. I rolled onto the ground and shot three people around me. I reloaded my last magazine and emptied it at the driver of the truck. I sucker-punched a man who charged at me with a baton and he crumbled.

I ran to Kildred while Fang protected us. I heaved Kildred onto one shoulder, but he was too heavy. I dragged him by the armpit to the back of the truck. We managed to get him into the vehicle before I ran into the driver's seat. I threw out the dead body and reversed the engine.

_It's just like the game. It's just like the game. _I told myself, moving on autopilot. _I know I'm not at age nor do I have a license but don't panic._

I drove the truck out of the blasted entrance.

"Fang!" I yelled as I began to pull away from the building. Fang dropped a crippled body and pounced towards us. He latched onto the side of the truck and I floored the petal.

We made it out alive.

As we drove through the dark night, I watched the helicopter as it landed. I vaguely knew the directions of the hide-out. Fang climbed from the side of the truck and swung into the seat next to me.

"You good?" He asked, giving me a fist bump.

"Always," I said, nodding.

"That was brave of you back there." He said, glancing behind at Kildred, who was howling in discomfort.

"You gonna fix him up back there?" I asked. He shrugged.

"He'll be fine. He said he just had a minor puncture." Fang said, whistling.

"I don't think any form of puncture of the body is good. Much less 'minor'" I said, getting a little worried.

"He told me to leave him alone," Fang said.

"Alright. We better get him to the medic soon." I said, glancing at Kildred through the front mirror. We drove a little bit in silence before he spoke.

"You've never driven a car, have you?" Fang said, noticing my poor driving control.

"Nope," I said. "Even though I'm at age of getting my driver's license, I don't know how to drive a car whatsoever."

"You're doing okay. As long as you know the road." He said.

"Are your injuries okay?" I asked when I noticed a gash on his arm.

"It's fine. Nothing like a cut will remind us how we are mortal as well." Fang said.

"Damn... you just sounded philosophical," I said.

"I know right?" He said, with a slightly excited tone. "I think I'm going to be a teacher when I retire from this whole mess."

"A teacher?" I asked, trying not to laugh.

"No matter how many people I meet, they always laugh when I say I might become a teacher when I retired." He huffed.

"I don't doubt that you can teach," I said, "but, you're kind of scary, no?"

"Scary?" He said, looking at me weirdly. He went silent, thinking about my comment.

"I mean, I didn't mean it in an insulting way," I quickly added.

"I guess you're right." He said, thinking. "But I can just morph into a human so that won't be a big problem."

"I guess," I said, relieved that he didn't get mad.

"Hey, focus on the road, and turn to the right. Follow the bridge and you're there." Fang said, pointing. We drove down the path and saw the bridge.

"You sure you're okay?" I asked, taking a glance at his wounds. He smiled and nodded.

"Really, I'm fine," he said. "A forty-year-old fox like me can deal with this kind of stuff."

"You're forty?" I asked. "You look young,"

"Really now?" he said, chuckling. "Can't tell if you're just trying to make me feel better,"

"I mean, I don't know symptoms of old age in zoroarks," I said, shrugging.

He smiled, "It's the same as humans, we start growing sluggish and rest more frequently,"

"Really now?" I said. He nodded.

"It's nice that the youth nowadays have so much energy," he said.

"Why's that?" I asked.

"So then they can do the dirty work," He said, picking his fangs. I rolled my eyes as he did.

"I was about to say something nice too," I mumbled. He exploded in laughter.

"Hah, just kidding kiddo. I would never do something like that," he said. He stopped speaking and speak silently later. "That was really dangerous back there,"

"You think?" I said, turning the wheel.

"Yes, don't do something like that ever again," he said.

"Yeah sorry, but leaving others behind isn't my thing," I said. "Even if I don't know them,"

He sighed. "Yeah, we were only lucky to have escaped."

"Would you have jumped if I didn't jump?" I asked, curious.

"I don't know buddy. I really would have," he said.

"That's good to know," I said.

I crossed the bridge and we approached the two flygons. They nodded as they saw Fang and let us in the parking area.

I moved up in front of the first car and slowly edged myself into space, looking at all mirrors to make sure that I didn't collide into anything.

"That wasn't so bad was it?" I asked when I shut off the engine. He shrugged.

"That was okay. You didn't check the front mirror though." He said, getting out the truck. We moved to the back and saw Kildred at a state of agony.

"Come on," Fang said. "Toughen up. I know you have experienced worse." We both supported him on our soldiers and marched towards the medical wing. A metagross came to greet us.

"I'll get him fixed in no time." He said, psychically pushing away the wheelchair that Kildred was in.

"Don't you think you should check out the infirmary as well?" I asked, pointing at his wounds. He shook his head.

"We don't need to worry about me. The old zoroark can take care of himself." He chuckled.

"Alright, you if you say so," I said.

"Go check out the armory and see if the big dude wants anything." He said, waving. "I'll give reports to Amelia. Just take the day off."

"Cool," I said, and he turned to leave. I made my way upstairs and to the armory.

"What's up?" The Charizard said, "I'm glad you made it back."

"I am too. Things got a little nasty along the way." I said, putting back my pistol.

"I heard about it." the dragon said. "How is Kildred?"

"He got shot. But we got him back in time." I said. The dragon nodded.

"You still want to keep the 5-7?" He asked.

"I mean... it was a good weapon, but like... I'm the type of person to try different things. You know?" I said.

"That's alright." He said. "You know when your next assignment is?"

"No clue," I said.

"Hmm... depending on the task... come back when you get your task and I'll get you the perfect weapon. Deal?"

"Yeah, that's cool," I said. I left all the ammo supplies on the table and made my way to our room. I hummed a little bit as the elevator ascended to the corresponding floor. I knocked on the door and heard no response. I opened the door and saw Emily sleeping.

"I'm back," I said softly.

"Kirlia." She mumbled. The sun was rising, but that fatigue hit me hard.

_Mind as well sleep I guess. _I thought. I took a quick shower, dried my hair and dropped myself onto the bed and drifted off. I've never slept so well in a while.


	10. An Idle Day

**Hola everybody. Happy Chinese New Year to those who celebrate New Years. I hope everybody has had an amazing and splendid year so far. **

**Uh, I guess it's kinda pointless to say any excuses, but I've been busy so far. This was supposed to be posted like two weeks ago, but I kinda forgot. That's because I got asked out (for the first time, mind you), so I kinda forgot. Also, I turned this person down, which kind of got me feeling really guilty and depressed for a couple of days. **

**Anyways, I have written about ten chapters ahead. EXCEPT! The problem is that it's from the back. So basically, I have a big-donkey gap in the middle in which I have to write. So yeah, that's a problem.**

**But, hopefully I can just... get everything done. Don't expect me to update around for like a good month, sadly. (maybe, you never know.) **

**I apologize for any grammatical mistakes I did not catch. I might start doing like a Google Docs for this kind of stuff, if anybody is interested in helping out so that I can crank out chapters faster. Tell me what you guys think. **

When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the clock. The clock idly displayed "11:53 AM". I groaned and shifted my weight, but something, an object of some sort, stopped me. I took a whiff of the sweet scent and sighed in content. It smelled really good. Like some intoxicating perfume or something. I hugged and snuggled into the figure.

I think I fell asleep or something before I woke up to Emily slapping the shit out of me.

"Woah!" I said, flinching. I saw Emily looking at me angrily. I noticed that half of her dress has slipped off her shoulder. She also seemed... embarrassed?

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that!" I said, deducing that I grabbed her when I was asleep.

"What the fuck!?" She said, extremely pissed off. "I shouldn't have trust you at all."

"Woah, wait. I'm really sorry," I tried to apologize. "At least you became a gardevoir again." She got up and stalked across the room and reached for the door handle.

"Yeah, like I haven't noticed." She said. "You sick poke-rapist." She slammed the door and left the room.

I felt her angry aura inanimate from the hallway. Awkwardly, I sat there in silence.

_Well, that just happened. _I thought. I heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," I said, getting out of bed and going into the bathroom.

"What happened? Who's that gardevoir in the hallway?" I heard Amelia ask.

"Oh, that was Emily," I said.

"She looked like she wanted to murder somebody," Amelia commented. "Did you do something?"

"Uhh... not in my consciousness," I said, squeezing toothpaste onto a toothbrush.

"She said something about you trying to rape her," Amelia said. I shrugged and brushed my teeth. "I said I was sorry. But I told her that we are having a meeting in a couple of minutes." I spat the paste into the sink.

"Did anything happen in the morning?" I asked, rinsing my mouth.

"Um... no?" She said, confused. "Why?"

"Nothing. Because we fell asleep after the mission." I said. "Speaking of which, how come it seems like you never sleep."

"I'm really a nocturnal type, so I barely sleep," Amelia said when I came out of the bathroom. "I need to make sure the tasks run smoothly. Are you ready? I'm here to fetch you, you know that right? We don't have all day."

"I'm coming," I said, changing into a casual outfit.

"That's better." She said, holding the door for me. I walked past her and we proceeded to travel down to the conference areas. Inside the room was almost the same amount of pokemon as the first meeting. I glanced at Emily who was silently fuming at the sight of me. I noticed that she was seated next to Jayden. I took a seat next to a friendly-looking lucario, who was fidgeting with a pen.

"Is everybody here?" Amelia asked, looking around. We all looked at her blandly, resulting in a sigh.

"Alright, Fang told me in the morning about the reports, so we can skip over that." She said, looking through her notes. "What I did want to talk about was the information that other establishments have sent us. Because we basically assaulted the place, we got a bad reputation for infiltrating places. So we might have to lay off intercepting places under heavy guard. Currently, we have to look towards the flight interception at the caps. They probably aren't expecting us to know anything about that."

"What about the assault on the mansion I talked about earlier?" A dragonite said. Amelia hesitated.

"When are we deploying our troops at the colder region," Amelia asked, pointing at medicham.

"Approximately thirty-eight hours from now." It said. Amelia nodded.

"We'll have to look forward to four key dates from now. Two of them come later. Two assassinations and two interceptions of information. I've heard back from the other strong points and they are requesting our help to push back the enemy line." Amelia said. "I want a unit prepared right now to head over to the city across from the valley. Ronin, you're going to leading this one as well. It'll just be a team of two."

"Another task?" I said, surprised.

"Yes Private, another task." She said. "If you decline this task I'll have you whipped in public."

"I didn't say anything about declining the offer," I said, defensively. "Why is it that a nearly inexperienced member has to lead a group of very experienced fighters?"

"I think you're an experienced leader unless you think otherwise." She said, putting her hands on her hips. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Fang nod his head in approval.

"Alright, if you say so," I said, shrugging. "I just don't want to screw up any plans."

"You'll be fine." She soothed, turning her attention away from me. "Emily, are you willing to go?" Emily frowned, which moderately surprised me.

"I'm just curious... what is your primary goal of this whole organization?" She asked. Everybody went silent.

"Why would you ask that?" Amelia asked, nonchalant. "We both promote the same ideals across with humans."

"Uh-huh, so why is it that both your planned tactics are to intercept information, rather than getting the prime targets killed on the spot?" Emily pressured. Everybody was starting to grow uncomfortable.

"Well, we have a reputation to maintain as well. Our enemy wouldn't be corporative if we had the reputation of being a serial killer." Amelia noted. "We plan our attacks secretly to yield the most efficiency. Also, about killing people, we have an assassination target which will occur approximately two weeks from now."

"Huh, what are the odds that you were trying to take over the position as president for yourself?" Emily smirked. Even Amelia looked surprised and shocked.

"Of course not-."

"You don't need to respond, just know that I'm not as dumb as you think," Emily said. "'Not to mention the number of guards you have placed on us. All the psychics here are for him," she pointed at me, "to believe that everything is alright. To track his emotions and thoughts. Not to mention the six ghost types that are used to track me."

She pointed at six different locations in the room. I thought she became a psychopath for a second. Each location stood a gengar, misdrevous, and a skulldusk who's disguise promptly wore off after being revealed. Everybody was surprised.

"She's much more powerful than we thought." I heard somebody murmur to the chief executive.

"Before I agree to this, I'm giving you guys a clear warning. If you do anything that remotely pisses me off or anything that will hurt our clan, I'll personally destroy this whole organization with my bare fists." Emily spat. "And once I find my group, I'm leaving. And the next time we meet, we'll be fighting for territory."

"Alright then," Amelia said. "I'm sorry that we've added precaution guards, which I saw necessary." She nodded to the ghosts and they dissipated. "We weren't about to cause any harm, just to let you know."

"I'm just trying to give you a clear warning before I accept any tasks from you," Emily said, giving her a menacing look.

"Okay then..." Amelia said. "We'll have Emily and the human over to the city. I'll explain your task more specifically tomorrow. But note that there are going to be reinforcements picking you up. Since we are tight on schedule, we'll have to evacuate you guys to the poles immediately. Ronin?"

"Yeah?" I said.

"I'll talk to you later tonight about tomorrow. Emily, you can come if you want." Amelia said. "Other than that, I don't really have anything else to say. Enjoy your day off today but be prepared tomorrow."

Everybody started to get up. I was about to find Emily, but she already walked away from the room.

_Okay then... _I thought. I went to the armory.

"What's up?" The dragon said. "Feeling down?"

"Why's that?" I asked, puzzled. I was feeling a little bit unsettled.

"Nothing, you're scowling." It said. I realized that I was indeed frowning.

"Oh sorry," I said, shrugging. "Shit is happening."

"It's tough." It said. "Where are you heading now?"

"Amelia said the city across the valley," I said. The fire dragon made a face.

"Yikes, that's not a great city." It said.

"Wow, a great way to reassure me." I joked.

"Not like that, sorry. But like, that city is filled with gangs and violent Pokémon who would fight any human." It said. "Basically a Pokémon city."

"Would they not like me?" I asked.

"I'm guessing not. Who's going with you?" It asked.

"Emily," I said.

"Who?" It asked, confused.

"The gardevoir?" I asked.

"Ohhh..." It said, thinking. "The kirlia from two days ago right?"

"Yeah," I said.

"She turned back into a gardevoir?" The dragon asked, leaning on the counter.

"Yeah, good news I guess." I shrugged. He smiled.

"Alright, here, I'm going to give you a melee weapon to use this time. Bullets don't do anything to Pokémon, depending on the type." It said, bringing a box over.

"Like Ghosts or Psychic-types?" I asked. The dragon nodded.

"Steel types, ghost types, psychic types are basically immune. Psychics can control bullets, ghosts aren't affected, steel type is too hard." It said. I looked at the blades it took out.

"What's this?" I asked, lifting a rather heavy blade with a yellow rod on the blade.

"Oh, a personal favorite. It has durable steel and a lightning rod on the other side to paralyze targets. Takes a while to charge up though." It explained.

"Is there something... lighter?" I asked, feeling its heavyweight. The creature made a thoughtful expression.

"I have a very light material made from Skararmy steel feathers." The dragon said, going to the back of the shop. "You wanna come?"

"Sure," I said, accepting his invitation. I stepped behind the counter and went behind the shop. Inside was a magnificent arsenal of weapons, from guns to swords and magical weapons.

"Here." He said, bringing a rapier out. I felt the lightweight on my hands.

"It's two pounds and a quarter to be exact." He said.

"I'm not really a stabbing person... you have a variant?" I asked, setting the rapier aside.

"I do have a blade-rapier variant if that's what you want." He said, handing me a similar sword with a sharp edge. I swung a few times and smiled.

"I like it," I said. It nodded and gave me a casing.

"Take care of it. The last user was one of my best friends." It said, a little sadly.

"A human?" I asked.

"No, a male gardevoir." It said. "It came from a village or camp whatever far from here. Male gardevoirs are quite rare, due to mutations. He was born a knight, so using swords was his primary. Though, guns were invented around this time. So he was shot."

"I'm sorry," I said, not knowing what to say.

"This has been a long time ago." It shrugged. "You should probably take a pistol just in case like last time."

I received a sleek pistol that fit my hand well. I put the trigger on safety and put it in my holster.

"I'll see you around?" I said, departing.

"Be safe!" It wished, waving.

I went back into my room mindlessly and set aside my weapons. I laid on my bed until I heard a knock.

"You good?" I heard.

"Yeah," I called.

"You wanna go workout with us?" I heard Jayden say.

"You guys have a workout place?" I asked.

"Yeah, come on," Jayden say. I grunted and opened the door. There stood a gallade and a hitmonchan.

"It's probably not opened yet, but we can still get a good two hours in." He said. I nodded and followed them. We crossed the main plaza to a building. A clefairy greeted us and we were admitted in. I looked around the massive room. A glass wall allowed natural light in and there were multiple sets of machines.

"Go, a hundred push-ups." The hitmonchan said, nudging me. I followed suit as Jayden got to the ground.

I started to do two when it stopped me.

"Bro, what's this." He said, gesturing to my elbow on either side of my head.

"A push-up?" I said. He shook his head.

"What are you? A kid? That's called PE push-up." He said. "You gotta put your elbows backwards."

"... that's a military push up. I can't do that." I said. Jayden chuckled.

"We are in the military, brother." The hitmonchan said. "Go, a hundred."

I grunted as I got to the ground. Jayden was going at a pace that I could manage, thankfully. However, I started to feel fatigue seeking in around twenty.

"You're not in good shape." The hitmonchan said.

"I... know!" I strained as I got up from a down position.

"Don't go so hard on him, Grejun," Jayden said. "He's only growing."

"He won't get better unless you go hard on him," Grejun said. "Continue. Be thankful that you don't have to restart from zero."

After twenty minutes of my complaining and three-quarters of my sanity, I completed my hundred pushups. Meanwhile, Grejun and Jayden were beyond four-hundred. They got up after a solid ten minutes.

"Okay, five-mile run, let's go." Jayden said, pushing me.

_What the f-_

"You can do two miles if you want. But you better finish before we finish ours." Grejun said. We all boarded on the track and started to run. Grejun and Jayden started to compete, running faster than each other. However, Jayden started to slow down out of fatigue. Meanwhile, I was enjoying my two-mile jog, watching the window the oversaw the great plaza. I finished my run a little before Jayden finished his.

"Wasn't so bad was it?" Grejun said. "Okay, a rep of two hundred pushups. Go."

I stared at him blankly before he laughed.

"I'm just kidding. That was only a warmup." Grejun said. Jayden wheezed in the background. "Fang wanted me to help you train for hand to hand combat. I think we should also train for melee training. Later on, I'll help you with weapon handling, but for now, we have to focus on physical wrestling."

They brought me over to a slightly padded ground.

"Hm... Jayden you wanna start first? I wanna see how he is first." Grejun said, grabbing a wet towel.

"Alright." Jayden said, after drinking from a gallon water bottle. We walked onto the floor.

"Wait, so this is like friendly wrestling right?" I said, getting nervous.

"What do you mean by friendly?" Jayden said, glancing at me.

"Like, if I can't move then you win right?" I said, blabbering gibberish.

"No... we're fighting for real. Just no Pokémon moves." He said when I looked at him blankly. "I know Heal Pulse, so don't worry."

"Alright..." I said, going to the opposite side of him.

"Ready?" Jayden called, extending his blades.

"Hey!" I called. "What happened to no Pokémon moves?"

"It's not called a move, it's called an accessory." He said. I gave him a look.

"Whoever falls to the ground first losses, alright?" Grejun called. I nodded. Jayden approached me cautiously, examining my every move. I held a defensive position, not taking any chances of being attacked. Jayden lunges forward and hit from the side. I dodged back initiative. Jayden frowned and attacked and chained with a kick. I flinched back from the swing and blocked the kick with my arms.

_Ow shit that hurts. _I thought, as my arms cried.

"Come on Ronin! Attack more. You're letting your enemy get confident." Grejun called. I shrugged and kept holding a defensive position. Jayden punched, but I grabbed onto his arm. He followed with a slash, but I tried to throw him over my shoulder

_Oh, he's heavy... _I thought as I immediately moved backwards from a punch.

"Come on, you gotta stop defending," Jayden said. He lunched forward with a wide-angled slice. I stepped forward and tried to kick him off balance. To my disadvantage, Jayden leaped into the air and grabbed me from behind. I was stuck in a position where I couldn't move because my neck was being held. I tried to kick his leg from behind, but he just threw me to the floor.

"Ouch," I said, feeling my tail bone inflame. Grejun approached me while Jayden healed my wounds.

"You have to defend less and attack more," Grejun suggested. "You're allowing your opponent to know that you're weaker. I know that you're at a disadvantage, but you have to have some surprises." He leaned in forward and whispered. "A gallade's weakness is at the joint of his arm. And his heart crystal, just saying." He pulled back and punched me lightly. "Come on, go again, I know you can do it."

"Are you belittling me?" Jayden complained. I got back up, ready to fight.

"That's more like it." The hitmonchan said, smiling. Jayden glanced at me before taking a fighting position. I balked up to him, being much more aggressive than before. He threw a punch at my stomach, but I grabbed onto his arm, flipping him around. He hit the ground but got up quickly.

"Oh wow, what brought this up?" Jayden taunted. I defensively went up to him again. This time, I initiative a kick, he parried my attack and caught my chained attack. I took a dangerous bet and grabbed the crystal on his chest.

"Fuck!" He cursed, crumbling to the ground. Grejun exploded with laughter from the sidelines.

"You told him right?" Jayden glared at Grejun.

"Yeah? So what if I did?" Grejun asked. Jayden shook his head. He got up from the mat and patted me on the shoulder.

"That doesn't count okay?" Jayden said. I shrugged. The hitmonchan got up.

"Let's have a go huh?" He said.

He grabbed a wooden stick from the rack. "Here, I think your wrestling technique is fine. I do want to see how you use a blade. I'm not good at blade handling, but I'll manage."

I nodded and felt the blunt edge of the carved piece of wood. I held the blade in a defensive position while Grejun got prepared. He ran up suddenly and slashed. I got low to the ground and tried to poke his torso. He quickly sidestepped the attack and swung again. I blocked this time. We were at a standstill until he suddenly knocked me off balance with his leg. I rolled back, slightly surprised by him kicking. He waited for me to get up before charging again. I stepped back as he swung yet again. It glazed my chest, but I didn't think too much of it.

"I just have to poke your torso right?" I asked. He nodded. I taunted at him to run at me. Luckily, he did run up, without any defensive moves. He cracked the blade downwards as I blocked. I tried to kick him off balance, but he moved backwards just in time. I grabbed the blade tightly and rushed in for the kill. He knocked the stick out my hand with ease.

"Hm... have you used a sword before?" He asked. I shook my head.

"I used to take fencing," I said. Jayden nodded.

"You have solid defense." He commented.

"Yeah, but you have to work on strength and speed. You lack strength, no offense." Grejun said. "Maybe we should do push-ups everyday here so that we can work on your muscles." I shrugged. A metacross came into the room.

"Crystal needs you, Grejun." The creature said. Grejun nodded.

"I'll see you guys around." He waved. We watched as he left.

"Who's Crystal?" I asked Jayden.

"Head manager for front line attacks." He said, wiping his neck. "Also our negotiator with the enemy. She has ways with words, which is pretty helpful."

"That's pretty nice... so tell me. You have any way to gain strength without the work?" I asked, jokingly.

"Not really," Jayden said, motioning for me to follow him. "Let's go. I think Amelia wants you."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Telepathy." He said. We left the gym and I noticed that it was almost dinner.

"We spent a long time in the gym. Maybe an hour or two?" He shrugged. We took the lift upwards to the conference area. Jayden frowned.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Amelia isn't here." He said. "Maybe she'll be back in a couple of minutes. You should rest for now. I'll tell her you went to your room."

"Okay... thanks," I said, stepping back into the elevator. The door closed and I blankly waited until I reached my floor. I fumbled for my key and opened the door. Emily was lying on the bed, in deep thought.

"You good?" I asked, cautiously. Emily lifted her arm and peered at me with one eye.

What happened?" I asked. She got up suddenly.

"Come on, let's go." She said, grabbing my arm.

"Where?" I protested when I was dragged out of the room.

"Just shut up and follow me." Was my response.


	11. Good and Bad

**Hola everyone. How is everybody doing?**

**I'm doing fine... if your wondering by my lack of activity (apologies) Recently I've come to realize that I've been procrastinating a lot lately (Not just story-wise but rather work-wise) The only way I used to write these stories were my 30-minute rides on the subway, but now that schools shut down, I've been in my house for a week straight. I started off not being able to do much (playing games... not working as much as I used to... gaining weight *(I gained like 6 pounds from outta nowhere)*) I've been trying to do more school work and steer away from playing games, but it's still a work in progress. Thank goodness I had a backup chapter in place, so it didn't take me as long to write. **

**Another thing I'm kind of self-conscious about is the way I write. How is my writing style to you guys? Is it fine? Like, I've been reading works from Murloc_Rampage and Ballandroll (**ZLewdomancer34**)** *(Really good authors if you want gardevoir material.)* and** their works have a writing style that I'm trying to strive for. Idk how you guys feel about how I write, so please let me know if you want me to improve in a specific area/type of writing style. Do you get what I mean? I don't know why I've been feeling so self-conscious about my writing, it might be a writing phase I dunno. Keep in mind this chapter was written in... January? So I guess this chapter (and the chapters before it) are rather "old aged". But hopefully, I'm able to post more often since I'm now stuck at home for a month. **

**As always, with the virus going on in the world, stay safe. Stay healthy. Wash your hands. WE have to come together to help get rid of the virus. It's not anybody's fault that the coronavirus exists. Please listen to facts and not hoaxes on social media. Go for sources like the World Health Organization or other science-based study-foundations. Like always, as humanity together, we have to collectively shoulder some burden from those who are racially suffering as a result of the outbreak. **

**Please stay healthy everyone. *(Wash your handsssss)***

"Why did you bring me here?" I asked after Emily dragged me behind the room with one arm.

She hushed me and pushed me into a small air vent that connected the room and hallway.

"Listen." She whispered.

"You're too close," I said, feeling her shoulder push against mine. I grew red as her leg was crossed above my right knee as she covered the entrance with an empty box. This hiding spot was really small for even one person.

"Can you be quiet?" She said, jabbing me in the torso with a sharp finger after she finished moving the box.

"Ow!" I complained, and she covered my mouth quickly.

_(Shut up!) _Emily said, with a serious expression. Sure enough, I heard some murmurs coming from the hallway.

"He's waiting for you inside." I heard.

"Thank you." Somebody else said.

I glanced at Emily, whose eyes were glowing a faint pink.

"I'm glad you came." A third voice joined.

"Are there precautious added?" I heard.

"Yes, we've added a psychic boundary."

"Let us begin then." I heard.

Then nobody spoke.

(I've tapped into their conversation. I'll translate like last time.) Emily said, telepathically.

"Are you sure this will block out the gardevoir's presence?" I listened.

"Yes, this is the most powerful boundary that we can set."

"Have you identified where this gardevoir have come from?"

"Emily, correct?" I flinched. We were eavesdropping through the supposed boundary.

"Yes."

"Our scouts have located a colony far away that houses some of the gallade and gardevoir population. Judging by her move-sets, we can say that Emily is part of the secret army that the queen of the colony has."

"Secret army?" I heard somebody ask.

"We have intermingled with them before. We've corroborated, but after we realized they were using us, we fought against each other." Emily's fist balled into a fist.

"They used us?"

"Yes. We have sent in our troops to die while they never suffered any casualties. We've met with the matriarch who promptly dismissed any subject relating to our mission. Our scouting group declared war against them and they were brutally murdered in the court."

"They are heartless, aren't they?"

"Very,"

"Then what is the human doing with them?" I shivered at the discussion.

"I'm guessing they kidnapped him."

"Why?"

"Our psychic leaders analyzed him when his mind was unguarded by the gardevoir. Very smart, I should say. Emily, this gardevoir, has been attempting to build up a defensive mechanism within his cortex to resist any psychic connections, only allowing the user to control his mind." I looked up shockingly at Emily, who ignored me as she continued to focus.

"I don't think she intends to control him, rather secure any information about her camp. This gardevoir is much more intelligent than I thought."

"I knew that the first time I saw her. But why would they choose this human? He has no power or strength."

"He has the brain, Sky. I hope you do realize that when I sent Fang to investigate." _Who is Sky?_ I thought about the first mission we embarked on. "Not only that, but his mind was open and was an untouched source. A perfect human to fill information with. They were lucky to find him. He has the hatred for humans, the will to kill, and the mindset for justice. It was a gold piece for the gardevoirs. I wished we have recruited him earlier,"

"We've been wanting to in the beginning... aren't you supposed to be discussing the mission with the boy? We'll continue after they leave."

"He can wait for a couple of minutes," somebody else said. "What are we supposed to do with two members of the secret army?"

"They will be valuable assets to the team, of course," a different voice said. "They have already detected ghost type and dark type presence. I'm sure that if they work together, can bring down even disadvantaged types."

"That's very good. I've been hoping to actually use them to continue to progress our missions."

"Shall we proceed with our plan?" Somebody vaguely said. I heard no noises after. A door opened afterward.

(Shit.) Emily cursed.

She grabbed my hand and we teleported back to our room.

"What... What was that about?" I asked. Emily shook her head.

"I don't know," Emily said, sitting in the bed. "But we have to remain very alert."

"Why were you able to bypass their boundary?" I asked, shook.

"Boundary? Their force was so weak I easily break through it with ease." Emily said, slightly arrogantly. "What I don't like, however, is that we'll be missing out on their conversation after we leave. For now, just forget about everything and let me figure it out."

"Alright," I said. Shortly afterward, a knock was heard. Emily teleported away.

_What the-_

I opened the door.

"I hope you are doing well?" Amelia said. I let her inside.

"Doing fine," I said.

"Where did Emily go?" She asked, looking around.

"I don't know," I said, semi-honestly.

"Hm..." she said. She pulled out a couple of documents and laid them onto the table. "We have already laid out the enemy ground and surveyed the area beforehand. All the roads are mapped onto the paper. We predict that there is going to be a caravan of trucks that are passing by this route. We don't know for sure, but the encrypted message sent by them said that. Be on the lookout for other roads." She explained. "We will be giving you three trip-mines and a message to give them. They will have their activities recording so keep your face hidden. I do not want you speaking to them either, because they can easily trace your voice. Hand them this message and have Emily teleport you away to survey their next actions. Allow them to pull away and drive back safely, you don't need to pursue them. I've created an untraceable message and sealed it into the envelope. I put some magic onto it so that no fingerprints will be imprinted." She handed me a clear white envelope. I put it onto my desk.

"Do you have any to conceal your face?" She asked. "I have a move that I could use to make your face unrecognizable."

"No, I have something," I said, pulling the smiling mask from my desk. She raised an eyebrow.

"Where'd you that?" She asked.

"Oh, from a captain in the colony," I said.

"Oh... that's a... important item you know?" Amelia said, looking at the mask. "Can I take a look at it?"

I handed over the plastic mask and she took a good look at it.

"Could it be possible?" She whispered. She looked in the interior and scraped at the forehead with her nails. I watched surprised as the white paste gave away to a message that was ingrained into the mask.

It read, "Forgive them,"

Amelia passed the mask over and I took it. She peered at me with one eye.

"Do you understand?" Amelia asked. I shook my head. "Where did you get it?"

"I got it from somebody back in the colony," I said. She sighed softly.

"I don't like to pressure people, but you have to tell me specifically who it was," Amelia said bluntly. I held eye contact with her before giving in.

"I got it from Captain Verily who was serving the humans," I said. I looked down, expecting her to be angry. But on the contrary, when I looked up, she was smiling.

"Why are you smiling?" I asked.

"I... I wish I could tell you, but you wouldn't understand little pup," Amelia said, standing up. "I'll be leaving now. I wish you the best of luck."

With that, she gave me a reassuring smiling before leaving.

A couple of minutes later, I heard Emily teleporting back into the room.

"I hope you've heard everything?" I said. She nodded.

"Give me the mask," Emily ordered. I obeyed and took it out for her.

"So..." she muttered, looking at the mask. "It is a real one,"

"I have no clue what's going on," I whispered. Emily handed it back to me and stared out the window at the setting sun.

"What are you thinking?" I asked, turning my head to Emily.

"Listen carefully," Emily said, turning around. "This is what we are going to do..." 

The time was set. Emily and I were in the deployment zone. We drove over to the other city with Emily sitting shotgun. As I approached the city, two golem-like Pokémon approached our car. My hand instinctively went towards my gun, but they asked for an ID and a permit. I went to the car bunk and took out two fake IDs and a permit for investigatory purposes.

"Polices?" The rock Pokémon groaned. "I hope that your supervisors know what they are doing. Stay safe,"

I smiled and nodded. I drove into the deserted roads and glanced at Emily, who was looking ahead glumly.

"Cheer up," I said, changing the action of the vehicle.

"If only I could," she said, sitting up straight. I backed into the alley that Amelia talked about. I slowly parked into the tight space and shut off the engine. The lights went out inside and I waited for a couple of seconds.

"You remember the plan right?" I asked, reloading my spare pistol.

"I do," Emily said. I opened the door and stepped out. Winter has been slowly getting worse. I breathed out in the cold weather and watched the fog dissipate in the air. I looked back to see Emily holding the mines in a suitcase. I nodded and we slowly walked to the destination. As I predicted, there were a lot of Pokémon.

"This place is like a ghost town, only Pokémon's inhabit this place," Emily said, looking ahead.

"I wonder... why don't they want to sign up for enlistment then?" I asked. She shrugged.

"They may have their own reasons not to," Emily said, walking.

"Yeah, maybe," I said, eyeing a hostile looking steelix. When we made eye contact, it snorted and disappeared into an alley.

"Hey..." I whispered to Emily. "Aren't you ineffective against those Pokémon's?"

"I am," Emily said, cautiously. "But I'm expecting you to back me up if anything goes wrong,"

We continued to walk in the ashy streets. I glanced at the amount of roaming Pokémon. A lot of them were curious about our presence. An umbreon approached me and sniffed my hand. I smiled and pet it as it pushed its head against my hand.

"I'm surprised with your friendliness with Pokémon," Emily said.

"Yeah, only to everyone except you," I said, jokingly. Emily tensed for a second, which I noticed. "Sorry, I was only joking. I didn't mean it like that."

"No, it's fine," Emily said, waving me off. "It's not like we are on friendly terms from the start anyways,"

I opened my mouth to reply but shut it. I didn't want to cause any further relationship problems at a moment like this.

We stayed silent for a good amount of time as we both walked.

"Hey, I hope you aren't offended right?" I asked.

"No, I was concerned about something else," she said, looking around. "What the rock Pokémon said back there makes me cautious."

I nodded slightly, "I hope that your supervisors know what they are doing. Is it possible they sent us here to... distract us?"

"That may be true. But at the same time, they were telling the truth, because there will be a caravan of trucks around here." Emily said.

I raised an eyebrow, "how do you know?"

"I looked at the information on the data that was collected from previous assaults. The code was specially detailed with an algorithm that was hard to crack." Emily said. "I was able to figure it out. Many other psychics were also to figure it out, so it wasn't a surprise."

"So you guys can crack codes?" I asked.

"You can say that. We process through lots of combinations at a time and trace the message that makes the most sense." Emily explained.

"Based on the conversation we heard, do you think it's possible that they knew that we were listening in?" I asked. She shrugged.

"That may be a possibility. I'm not sure either, because the information we heard was very informative. It's unlikely that they would be speaking about this openly." She calmly replied.

"What did they mean by my mind was open?" I asked.

"It's hard to explain to a non-psychic," she said. "But your mind is more capable of psychic use if that makes sense."

"Not really," I said, awkwardly. She sighed.

"I'll explain more in detail another time because we should focus on the task on hand." She said.

"I'm slightly surprised that you are willing to corroborate," I said.

"I am too," Emily told me. "I have my fair share of suspicions against this camp, but something also tells me to follow their instructions. We have the same goals if I had to say, but they perhaps want something different out of it. You get me?"

"I do understand. I've been getting those kinds of suspicion as well," I said.

We both wandered up the grey and lonely streets. Everything was very gloomy which added to the depressing feeling. A couple of Pokémon would walk past up with a suspicious expression, others would walk past us without another thought.

"We will take position there," Emily said, pointing at the back alley. "Set up the trip mines to destroy the leading vehicle. You have the message right?"

"I do," I said, taking out the flimsy piece of paper.

"Good," she said, checking the corners. "We are approaching the planned time."

I kneeled over and planted the objects across the streets. The metal canisters have pressure detectors and a giant spike that it holds. Once the pressure and weight of the vehicle trip the mines, the spike will sabotage and destroy the wheels of the vehicle, thereby stopping it. I twisted the handle in a clockwise motion and the machine implanted itself into the concrete with a loud impact. Smoke rolled off the top as the dust cleared. I cleared the debris away and kicked the crumbled stones away to conceal its location. I nodded in satisfaction when the mines were concealed into the surrounding environment.

"I've got it," I signaled to Emily. She nodded and signaled for me to follow her. I looked around the ashy streets where there were little Pokémon around. It added slightly to the depressing vibe of the city in general.

"When are they coming?" I asked, squinting in the distance.

"Very soon," Emily said, looking through a pair of binoculars. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay," I said, rubbing some of my sore spots from working out.

"Good. I believe there will be some guards that are with them," Emily said, "I believe we are not supposed to engage with them."

"I'm just kind of curious," I began, "What's in this message anyways?"

"Can I have it for a second?" She asked. I handed it over to her. Her expression turned a little darker.

"Hm, it's psychically resistant, meaning I cannot read what's inside," Emily said. "Though it's probably part of the concealment magic. They are very clever by hiding a tracking move here. Meaning we can track them to their quarters unless they decide to get rid of the letter."

"You think we are going to raid their HQ?" I asked.

"Yes, we will. I looked over the gallade's database and I saw all the plans," Emily said.

"Jayden?" I asked.

"Sure," Emily said, looking down the streets. "I also verified the source with the lucario's logs as well, so I am relatively confident the sources are correct."

"..." I said. "Did you find a connection back to the others yet?"

Emily's expression frowned a little.

"No, I have not. I cannot track them by sending out a message," Emily said, adjusting her hoodie.

"Why not?" I asked, confused.

"Sending a message out is like alerting all the psychic Pokémon about our presence, meaning the people at base can pick up the messages as well," Emily explained. "For that reason, we do not use these means of communication. We rely on the orders coming from the matriarch herself."

"It's risky to send a telepathy signal," Emily continued. "Not that they would respond to it either."

"Have you figured out where we are?" I asked. "We may be able to figure out camp that way. Especially since the... uh... leaders here have already realized we are already from the camp."

"I have not been able to figure out where we have ended up," Emily said. "I've not asked around either, because I thought it would attract unwanted attention."

"Do you think we are far away from camp?" I asked.

"..." Emily thought for a second. "If I am correct, I do believe we are quite a distance from home... the last time we corroborated with another Pokémon group was a year ago... they ended up fleeing the country to escape."

"But that doesn't really help us locate camp..." I said.

"We can decide later," Emily said, looking expectantly at the roads. "They are here."

I looked up to see a dispatch of cars heading towards our direction. They were in a formation, allowing two cars in front to act as protection.

The cars in front proceeded to drive past the golems and drive across the road. A blast ripples through the area as the metal spike punctured through their tires. The car in front slid in front of the group, causing all the cars to stop.

Immediately, a group of armed people came out, alert. Quickly, I slipped on the smiling mask and leaped down from our hiding spot and slowly approached them, with Emily following closely behind. They spotted me and aimed their guns at me. I raised my hands in the air as I got close to them. The guards trained their guns on me as they watched every move I made. A group of them decided to shoot, but Emily, with an expert flick of the hand, cast a barrier that deflected the bullet. Another person decided to rush me, taking me by surprise, but Emily used Psychic to push him away.

Slowly, I got the envelope that I placed in my inside pockets and held it in front of me. I tilted my head at an angle as they sent one of their people to retrieve the letter. The boy looked at me shakily before taking the letter and quickly returned to the car safely. I smiled and bowed, turning the other way to walk. I saw Emily make a curt bow before following me. The people quickly entered their cars and drove off. The sound of a car engine starting was heard before they pulled away from the streets and continued their journey.

_Jobs done. _I thought, looking at the disappearing car. _Let's head back quickly, shall we?_


End file.
